A “surprisingly large chunk” of City of York Council’s emissions come from staff working from home.

An annual carbon emissions report presented to the council’s executive member for environment and climate emergency, Cllr Kate Ravilious, showed that more than 13 per cent of the council’s emissions came from homeworking staff.

According to a 2023 council survey, an estimated 723 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) were produced as a result of home working in 2022/23.

This incorporates the use of office equipment, lighting and heating during the workday.

“While energy consumption practices when working from home is beyond the council’s direct sphere of influence, we encourage energy saving behaviours amongst staff, and advertise our energy efficiency advice resources,” the report read.

Shaun Gibbons, head of carbon reduction at the council, said: “The majority of our emissions come from two sources: gas used for heating and hot water in our buildings, and fuel from our fleet.

“We continue to see progress with reducing emissions from our buildings.”

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Decarbonisation plans have been completed for 33 of the council’s highest energy-consuming sites and the council is seeking public sector funding to further address the issue.

However, Mr Gibbons added: “The inclusion of staff commuting and home working has shown areas where improvements can be made and we’re in the process of updating our council travel plan with suggestions of reducing emissions associated with staff travel and homeworking.”

While the council’s corporate emissions account for less than three per cent of city-wide greenhouse gas emissions, it shows how working from home may not be as environmentally friendly as some may assume.

Working from home produced far more emissions than staff commuting (10 tCO2e) and business travel (42 tCO2e) put together.

However it was not as much as the greenhouse gas emissions from heating council buildings (2,607 tCO2e) or from the council's fleet of vehicles (1,669 tCO2e).

Cllr Ravilious said it was “really interesting” to see the amount of emissions that came from home working, adding that it “was a surprisingly large chunk” and asked what more the council could do.

York Press: Cllr Kate RaviliousCllr Kate Ravilious

Mr Gibbons said: “Towards the end of the height of the Covid pandemic when working from home was routine, there was an interesting report from the NHS which compared people working from an office with working from home and which direction would be best to reduce emissions.

“The answer wasn’t simple.

“It’s very dependent on the time of the year, how far people generally travel to their workplace, the availability of public transport to get to their workplace.

“So it is complex but we can provide some recommendations in the staff travel plan.”

This is the first time activities including material usage, transmission and distribution , staff commuting and home working have been included in the annual report.

Removing the additional data sources, it shows that comparable emissions have reduced by almost 10 per cent between 2021/22 and 2022/23, as the council strives toward becoming a net-zero city by 2030.