Volume 2 | Issue 1 | Spring 2006

The sustainability of telework: an ecological-footprinting approach

Markus Moos^1*, Jean Andrey², & Laura C. Johnson³

1 School of Urban and Regional Planning, Queen's University at Kingston, 138 Union Street, Room 539, Policy Studies Building, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6 Canada (email: 4mm16@qlink.queensu.ca)

2 Department of Geography, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1 Canada

3 School of Planning, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1 Canada

*Corresponding Author

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.

KEYWORDS: environmental impact sources, commuting, environmental policy, human-environment relationship, environmental assessment, case studies

© 2006 Moos et al.