More than half of Sun Microsystems’ employees work from home or in a flexible office, and a study of some of those employees found big savings in vehicle expenses and energy use.
The company’s Open Work Energy Measurement Project studied more than 100 participants in the company’s flexible work program to see how much energy they used at Sun offices, at their homes and when commuting to and from work.
Employees saved more than $1,700 a year on gas and vehicle upkeep by working from home an average of 2.5 days a week. They also saved an average of 2.5 weeks of commute time.
Office equipment in Sun offices used twice as much energy as home office equipment, the study found. And commuting accounted for more than 98 percent of the employees’ carbon footprints.
About 19,000 Sun employees are in the flexible work program, accounting for 56 percent of the company’s workforce.
According to a telecommuting survey recently conducted by Dice, a technology career resource website, about 37 percent 1,500 technology professionals said they would be willing to cut their salary by 10 percent or less to telecommute. Thirty-six percent said they wouldn’t take a pay cut, 19 percent said they would take any job, and seven percent already telecommute.