A United States provision in the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 requires employers in high-pollution areas to reduce single-occupant automobile trips by their employees during peak hours. Specific rules are set by state environmental agencies.
In order to meet these requirements, many employers will first look to car pools and mass transit subsidies, but they will also want to add telecommuting to their mix of remedies, experts say.
The impact could be significant: If 15% of the workers in New York city telecommuted 3.7 days per month, the potential impact on the metropolitan environment would be: 95,000 fewer commuting vehicles per day; 15 million fewer gallons of gasoline consumed per month and 2.5 fewer tons of toxic emissions per day.
'Telecommuting is the only trip-reduction measure that employees really like and will do without cajoling from management,' observed telework consultant Gill Gordon in Monmouth Junction, New Jersey. 'And it is the only one that offers direct benefits to the employer, such as reduced office space and improved recruitment and retention of employees.'
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