Transportation of all kinds are major contributors to climate change, and in Minnesota transportation is responsible for 30% of our carbon emissions.

Companies cannot be strong armed into doing what's right for the environment, but I believe a tax incentive could motivate them to have more employees work from home. Benefits for companies who allow telecommuting are many, but some highlights are:

- Higher productivity*

- Lower campus costs in square footage required

- Lower campus costs in utilities

- Lower campus costs in office supplies

- Lower campus costs in leasing for parking

- Lower campus costs in break room amenities

Those benefits to the bottom line, on top of a tax incentive, should be enough to motivate companies to move much of their workforce to working remotely.

* https://www.forbes.com/sites/groupthink/2014/08/27/employees-who-work-at-home-are-more-productive-than-office-dwellers/#3c6ffb54beb9

How might it work?



Companies would report the number of full work days their employees telecommuted each quarter. The percentage of their overall labor hours vs their remote hours would dictate where they fall in a tiered tax break system. Companies currently face excise taxes for environmental impact, communication, and fuel — these seem like logical and natural places for those tax breaks to start as this system would affect all three.



Tax breaks would only be given for Minnesota residents telecommuting to prevent outsourcing. If companies want the Minnesota tax break, they need to be employing Minnesotan workers.

Now for the good stuff — how it well help Minnesota and the world at large.

- More job opportunities for rural areas

- More job opportunities for the disabled

- Lower road maintenance costs, which will help offset the company tax incentives

- Less road construction, which will help offset the company tax incentives

- Less traffic, reducing road fatalities and reducing drive time for those who must still commute in addition to less CO2 emissions

- Cleaner air, improving quality of health for everyone

- Less microplastic tire pollution, leading to cleaner water and a safer environment

- Happier employees who will get an average of 40 minutes back in their day

That’s all great, but show me the studies. How do you know this will help?

Thanks to the University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs and SRF Consulting Group, Inc., there’s a great data set from 2011 we can get some numbers from.

As of 2011 130,000 Minnesotans were working from home. Studies show the average telecommuter works from home 1.5 days per week, removing an estimated 78,000 commute trips each day from Minnesota roads. That’s the equivalent of removing every single person on Highway 77 (Cedar Avenue) every day of the week and having it all to yourself.

Those same telecommuters save 1,946 lbs of CO2 emissions annually. If even 10% of Minnesota’s workforce was working from home that often, that equals a reduction of 598,978,000 lbs of CO2 per year for commuting alone. That’s the equivalent of planting 73,000 acres of forest, which would be the size of Minneapolis and St. Paul combined!

Minnesota could be responsible for starting a no-brainer, nationwide trend that has clear benefits to both the environment and the economy. Help me show this idea has a lot of support so I can continue working with our legislators to get it done.

Want more numbers? Let's dive in. Here are some stats for how this helps benefit the individual telecommuter outside of helping with climate change.



All data below is from the University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs and SRF Consulting Group, Inc via their eWorkplace Program data.

Telecommuting between 1-2 days per week saves the average worker 1 hour of commute time per week. Over the course of a year, this represents over 44 hours of time spent idly sitting in a car traveling to work—an amount of time equal to another 5 days off of work every year.

In addition, telecommuting between 1-2 days per week also saves an average of $18.45 per week in fuel and vehicle maintenance costs. That’s $886 per year back in the pocket of telecommuters.

According to a a WFD/Harris Interactive study:

"More than two-thirds of teleworkers rated their work-life balance “better” or “much better” than it was when they commuted daily to the office. Over two thirds...reported an increase in productivity as a result of teleworking, due to fewer distractions. In addition, participants generally felt that teleworking supports an improved work-life balance and reduces stress."

Concerned about how this impacts the productivity of businesses? Here are more studies.

All data below is from the University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs and SRF Consulting Group, Inc via their eWorkplace Program data.

In 2009 Fairview Health Services switched their IT staff to a Results-Only Work Environment, which included telecommuting, and found a 50% decrease in overtime hours.

In 2009 Ecolab ran a pilot program for their IT staff telecommuting and found a 16% increase in calls answered, a 10% increase in quick call resolution, a 4.5/5 customer satisfaction rating and a 3% increase in availability.

In 2010 Macalester College ran a pilot program for their department staff with scheduled telecommuting days. 87% of supervisors reported fewer distractions and improved productivity, 75% reported better workload management, 63% reported an enhanced ability to meet deadlines, and 50% cited better work/life balance with less stress.



In the eWorkplace Program 16% of participants earned less than $50k, 17% earned $50k-$70k, 15% earned $70k-$90k, 17% earned $90-110k, 13% earned $110k-$150k. This shows telecommuting can be successfully applied to and has benefits for a wide range of positions in a company or organization.

Minnesota invested $3.2 million in the eWorkplace program in 2011. The following are the cost results:

"A statewide telework initiative can provide a positive return on investment (ROI). Based on a program evaluation conducted by the University Minnesota, eWorkPlace benefits from travel time saving and vehicle costs amounts to over $6.3 million annually. The state’s $3.2 million investment was recouped during the first two years of implementation. The program had an ROI of about 2 to 1 after one year of full participation. Over a 5−year horizon, eWorkPlace is estimated to yield a 9 to 1 return−on−investment (ROI), which does not include productivity, environmental or quality of life gains."



For more data and information on the many benefits of telecommuting, please see eworkplace-mn.com. The University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs did wonderful work and thorough studies on the impact of telecommuting, and there's plenty to go through there. The vast majority of hard data collected in this petition comes from their thorough studies.