The sustainability of telework: an ecological-footprinting approach

This paper demonstrates the importance of a comprehensive framework to assess how telework affects sustainability. Sustainability-policy evaluation rarely considers substitution effects despite broad recognition that overall lifestyles must be analyzed to gauge how policy-induced behavioral changes...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Markus Moos, Jean Andrey, Laura C. Johnson
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2006-07-01
Series:Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy
Subjects:
Online Access:http://ejournal.nbii.org/archives/vol2iss1/0511-020.moos.html
Description
Summary:This paper demonstrates the importance of a comprehensive framework to assess how telework affects sustainability. Sustainability-policy evaluation rarely considers substitution effects despite broad recognition that overall lifestyles must be analyzed to gauge how policy-induced behavioral changes translate into net environmental impact. Case-study data indicate that telework has far-reaching, complex, and varied effects on lifestyle practices, with potentially important environmental implications. Because adjustments occur across numerous consumption categories, the assessment of telework’s environmental dimensions must move beyond single-issue studies and single-dataset analysis. Ecological-footprint analysis, in combination with qualitative data, can suggest solutions to sustainability problems.
ISSN:1548-7733