Remote-Working Carbon-Saving Footprint: Could COVID-19 Pandemic Establish a New Working Model with Positive Environmental Health Implications?

Abstract

Urban air pollution is a major problem with known negative health implications, such as respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Lockdown measures have caused the reductions of various urban pollutants, such as nitrogen dioxide (NO2), particulate matters (PMs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). COVID-19 pandemic has also established remote-working as an antidote to declining economic activity due to lockdown measures. The environmental health implications of the new hybrid-working model, which drastically reduces the number of circulating vehicles, appear to be positive enough to reveal an emerging opportunity. Since this hybrid model may have started becoming a widely accepted working model, the current situation has revealed the opportunity of remote-working arrangements to serve as a supplementary mitigative and adaptive measure against urban environmental deterioration. Also, a remote-working carbon-saving footprint may be introduced in order to evaluate a firm’s carbon footprint reduction due to remote-working arrangements. These workings arrangements may be accompanied by improvements and expansions of urban green spaces and with broader use of electric vehicles, transforming our cities into more sustainable, safe, healthy, and worth-living environments.