Project

The impact on resources of new ways of working

EBP investigates the impact on resources of new ways of working such as home offices and mobile offices: do they really use fewer resources?

Flexible working models such as home offices or mobile offices enable people to work from home or while travelling. Studies have shown that these new ways of working lead to a higher quality of working and personal life and also to higher productivity. Reduced commuting distances and reduced office space requirements can also give rise to a reduction in costs and CO2 emissions.

In order to calculate the economic and ecological effects of various ways of working, EBP has developed a cost and CO2 calculator. In an initial stage, general statements are made on the resource efficiency of new ways of working, and their effects on employers, employees and society are evaluated. In a second stage, the calculator will be expanded to include inputs of company-specific data, and will become operational on Home Office Day 2012. SMEs can use it to calculate their own cost and CO2 savings as a result of introducing new ways of working.

At the same time, qualitative case studies will be carried out in cooperation with the University of Applied Sciences at Lucerne. The results of the model calculations for three knowledge-intensive companies – Microsoft, EBP and Free-Style – will be examined, and the development patterns over time of new ways of working within these companies will be determined. The aim here is to discover more about the triggers of the development of new ways of working and to identify the factors of success for the introduction of new ways of working.

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