UK Contact Centre staff unncessarily generate 1.3 million tonnes of Carbon Dioxide each year
Environmental cost of commuting could be slashed using technology to enable working from home
The UK’s nearly one million contact centre professionals are generating 1.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year through commuting, according to Exony, leading suppliers of interaction management software to the contact centre industry. This combined contribution to global warming, which would require 902,000 acres (1409 square miles) of forest to ‘offset’ the CO2 (source: US Environmental Protection Agency), could be drastically reduced if more contact centre staff were allowed to work from home rather than commute.
Some 460 million commuter journeys take place to UK contact centres each year, Exony calculates, many of which could be cut back by taking advantage of communications technologies that enable staff to work remotely. The opportunity to work from home, or “homeshore”, would also benefit new parents, the disabled and older workers for whom commuting is not an option.
Globally, the figure becomes more stark, as 6.5 million contact centre agents (source: Datamonitor) generate 9.2 million tonnes of CO2 by commuting, equivalent to 6.2 million acres of forest.
“It’s staggering to think that an area of forest nearly the size of Kent would be required to offset the UK contact centre industry’s commute,” said Ian Ashby, CEO of Exony. “Homeshoring would significantly reduce the amount of traffic on our roads and enable a whole new segment of the population to use their skills beneficially.”
The trend towards enabling contact centre staff to work from home is particularly prevalent in the US, powered by changing cultural attitudes and improved communications technology. Currently, there are an estimated 112,000 home-based agents in the US, a figure that is predicted to rise to 330,000 by 2010 (source:IDC).
Despite a contact centre workforce pushing one million, working from home is not as prevalent in the UK. Ashby argues that Work Wise Week, which runs from 16-22 May and includes National Work From Home Day on May 18, provides the perfect opportunity for contact centres to investigate and experiment with homeshoring.
Phil Flaxton, chief executive of Work Wise UK, said: “Businesses in the UK will have no option but to introduce smarter working practices, of which home working is one example, if they are going to be able to recruit and retain the staff they need in the future, and increase productivity and competitiveness to be able to meet the challenges emerging from economies such as India and China.
“Changing working practices and working smarter will not only increase business productivity and competitiveness, but also reduce transport congestion and pollution, improve health, assist disadvantaged groups, and harmonise our work and family commitments.”
