Business

Travel

Transport is a major cost for many businesses and their staff.  Providing facilities for people’s chosen modes of transport also may incur costs, for example in providing parking.  On this page we will explore some of the issues and challenge businesses to reduce emissions, and potentially improve the bottom line too.

Home working

Travelling is expensive in staff time, fuel and fares.  So, avoiding travel by using appropriate alternatives is a good starting point.  Particularly for service sector employees, working at home is an option for at least some work.  With increasing availability of superfast broadband, virtual private networks (VPN) and video calls, much work can be carried out at home, potentially reducing desk space requirements in the office and pressure on car parking, and cutting emissions and traffic congestion at peak times.

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of video-conferencing such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom in both our work and personal lives.  Somerset County Council has saved literally millions of pounds in travel expenses through the pandemic as meetings moved online.  And that is just the travel costs, never mind the previously unproductive travel time driving to meetings.  As society becomes less restricted, finding the happy medium for hybrid working can help reduce traffic pollution.