Can you guess your most polluting activity? Would you be surprised to learn that driving your private vehicle is most likely the culprit?

Most activities, including driving, have a measurable environmental impact. According to the US EPA, vehicle exhaust releases hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), and carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. These pollutants contribute to smog, acid rain, health problems, and climate change. While significant progress has been made in recent decades to reduce the amount of vehicle-generated pollutants, driving still has a significant impact on our environment as the number of annual miles driven has nearly doubled over the same period of time.

Crystal Creek takes this environmental challenge seriously, and has supported remote employee practices since we opened seven years ago. Employees that work remotely, often from home, are significantly happier than their office-bound counterparts and have much lower turnover. According to Citrix, remote employees save on average $4,500 yearly in vehicle-related expenses, and gain an average of 2.5 weeks of free time each year that they would otherwise spending commuting.

To understand the positive impact Crystal Creek has made by supporting remote workers, we calculated the saved emissions (those that were not released into the environment) of each remote worker since we opened. Saved emissions were calculated based upon our remote workers’ commute distance and the number of trips per week. We were amazed at how quickly it added up!

Interested in evaluating your own impact? The EPA hosts a free carbon footprint calculator that takes less than five minutes to complete. The calculator provides you with money and energy savings tips that will also help you to reduce your impact!

Click here to be directed to the EPA Carbon Footprint Calculator.