Wednesday, May 30, 2007 | Another way to lower the consumption of fossil fuels: I believe there is one other way to help lower the fossil fuel use. I am amazed no one has thought of this! I am amazed that neither Steve Jobs nor Bill Gates has stepped up with this idea.
We need to promote working from home. While this would not replace all jobs, there are many jobs that certainly do not need to be attended to in an office building. For instance, my area of expertise is technical writing and graphics. There is absolutely no reason I should have to add to the pollution by driving to an office building. Management needs to learn how to embrace the age of computers.
Virtual offices would cut down on all the massive building of large office buildings, which also affect global warming as all of the building, and city sprawl is taking away many natural resources we need to survive. Virtual offices could lower the prices of many goods as the corporation would not have to pay for a place for that person to sit and all of the extra costs associated with infrastructure that is associated with each person. The use of virtual offices would allow for more ease of a handicapped person to be a part of the work force! Virtual offices would allow for mothers or fathers to be with their children at home.
I at one time worked for the Navy. Talk about a lot of waste of tax dollars and fuel dollars and accommodation dollars. You would think that an organization that is supposedly so advanced would cut down on all of the needless travel back and forth to each of the Service Centers and Washington DC just for meetings! With the use of virtual offices, there would be no reason to travel just to have a meeting in person. But I digress.
I will repeat that this idea will not work for all jobs — i.e. service oriented jobs, construction etc. However, I believe that with the infrastructure savings and perhaps a federal and or state tax incentive virtual offices for jobs that can be done from home would put a great dent into the fight against global warming and the use of fossil fuels.
It is a brand new world — one created by Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, let us join together and take their brilliance to another yet to date under utilized level.