The environmental impact of remote working. Insights from a survey conducted at Banca d'Italia

Dario Alessandro de Pinto, Donato Milella (), Daniele Macali (), Riccardo Basile, Carmen Lavinia (), Giovanni Murano, Marco Rao, Roberta Roberto, Andrea Tortora and Alessandro Zini
Additional contact information
Donato Milella: Bank of Italy
Daniele Macali: Bank of Italy
Riccardo Basile: ENEA
Carmen Lavinia: ENEA
Giovanni Murano: ENEA
Marco Rao: ENEA
Roberta Roberto: ENEA
Andrea Tortora: ENEA
Alessandro Zini: ENEA

No 999, Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) from Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area

Abstract: Banca d'Italia has signed a cooperation agreement with the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) to quantify the changes in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy consumption associated with the adoption of flexible working arrangements. As part of this collaboration, a questionnaire was drawn up and administered to the Bank's employees in 2023 to assess the environmental impacts of the hybrid work model, which was introduced in 2022 and integrates remote work and on-site work. An analysis of the 4,255 responses collected at both the head office buildings in Rome and Frascati and at 38 branches across Italy has made it possible to estimate, based on empirical evidence, the environmental impact of employee commuting and the additional household energy consumption associated with remote working, an aspect still relatively underexplored in the literature. Taking into account the number of days worked remotely, the average per capita emissions for staff commuting to work amount to 4.1 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent (kgCO2e) for each working day in the office (compared with 4.8 kilograms in 2020, before the hybrid work model was introduced). The emissions associated with additional household energy consumption for heating, cooling, IT equipment and lighting amount to 1.1 kgCO2e per day of remote working. The study also provides an estimate of the average GHG emissions related to the additional household energy consumption linked to a day of remote working, broken down by climate zone. This estimate is potentially usable by other companies and institutions to calculate the indirect GHG emissions (Scope 3) linked to employee commuting.

Keywords: remote working; teleworking; greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions commuting; hybrid work model; energy consumption; Scope 3; GHG Protocol (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 H83 J22 M54 O33 R11 R41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-01
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_999_26

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