Transport Emissions are Increasing at a Faster Rate Than Other Energy End-Use Sectors.

TECHNOLOGY GUIDELINES

With industry experts, develop guidelines and workspace requirements needed for employers to benefit from CloudCommuter employees.

Learn More

FACILITY GUIDELINES

With leading architects, build secure shared work facilities, purpose-build for cloud collaboration, that can universally communicate with each other. 

Learn More

Key Facts

Greenhouse Gas

The transport sector produced 7.0 GtCO2eq of direct GHG emissions (including non-CO2 gases) in 2010 and hence was responsible for approximately 23% of total energy-related CO2 emissions (6.7 GtCO2).

Population

Around 10 % of the global population account for 80% of total motorized passenger-kilometers (p-km) with much of the world’s population hardly traveling at all.

Performance

With vehicle performance held constant, reducing vehicle weight by 10 % gives a fuel economy improvement of about 7%.

CloudCommuter

Why we need to reinvent workplace.

Urban Development

Transport can be an agent of sustained urban development that prioritizes goals for equity and emphasizes accessibility, traffic safety, and time-savings for the poor while reducing emissions, with minimal detriment to the environment and human health. Transformative trajectories vary with region and country due to differences in the dynamics of motorization, age, and type of vehicle fleets, existing infrastructure, and urban development processes. Prioritizing access to pedestrians and integrating non-motorized and public transit services can result in higher levels of economic and social prosperity in all regions. Good opportunities exist for both structural and technological change around low-carbon transport systems in most countries but particularly in fast-growing emerging economies where investments in mass transit and other low-carbon transport infrastructure can help avoid future locking to carbon-intensive modes. Mechanisms to accelerate the transfer and adoption of improved vehicle efficiency and low-carbon fuels to all economies, and reducing the carbon intensity of freight particularly in emerging markets, could offset much of the growth in non-OECD emissions by 2030.

According to the UN agency’s 2017 Measuring the Information Society report, harnessing the benefits of advances in the ‘Internet of Things’, big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, countries will need to create conditions and infrastructures that allow these next-generation networks and services. [Source]

Travel Time Budget

Transport helps determine the economy of a city or region based on the time taken to move people and goods around. Travel time budgets are usually fixed and tied to both travel costs and time costs (Noland, 2001; Cervero, 2001; Noland and Lem, 2002). Because cities vary in the proportion of people using different transport modes, urban planners tend to try to adopt land use planning to fit these modes in order to enable speeds of around 5 km/hr for walking, 20–30 km/hr for mass transit, and 40–50 km/hr for LDVs, though subject to great variability. Infrastructure and urban areas are usually planned for walking, mass transit, or LDVs so that destinations can be reached in half an hour on average (Newman and Kenworthy, 1999). Urban travel time budgets for a typical commute between work and home average around 1.1–1.3 hours per traveler per day in both developed and developing economies.  

Lifestyle and behavioral factors are important for any assessment of potential change to low-carbon transport options and additional research is needed to assess the willingness of people to change, Disruptive technologies such as driverless cars and consumer-based manufacturing (e.g. 3-D printing) could impact on future transport demands but these are difficult to predict. Likewise, the impact of new information technology (IT) applications and telecommuting could potentially change travel patterns, reduce trips, or facilitate interactions with the mode of choice. [Source]

  1. Commuting is a Waste of Time

    The average commute time in the US is 25.4 minutes, or 50.8 minutes per day. That equates to over 200 hours per year getting to and from work. Now multiply 200 hours by the one hundred million people who make that commute to work on a daily basis.

  2. The Right Technology is Now Here

    For thirty years we’ve waited for the paperless office. It has finally arrived. What’s changed is the cloud. While today many organizations allow for occasional work-at-home on an as-need basis, only 3% allow all or most of their employees to work at least some time at home on a regular basis. We’ve made great progress building greener, more efficient workplaces. The fact is, we now use more energy commuting to work than our working buildings use for heating, cooling, lighting, and other energy uses.

  3. Transportation Infrastructure Needs Help

    China spends 9% of GDP on infrastructure, and Europe about 5%, while the US spends 2.4%. But investing in more technology instead of more roads may be a better bet for America. The Census Bureau expects the US population to grow by 40% over the next four decades, therefore transit demands will increase as well.

  4. A Better Way to Live

    More work-near-home workers would strengthen and revitalize local businesses, especially for economically depressed areas where good-paying but distant employment doesn’t mean moving away.  Today, with longer work hours and two-parent (or single parent) workers, out-of-town commutes are especially costly on families as well as on communities. And when companies close up shop, entire communities aren’t devastated, which increases the odds laid off employes will find new work, especially if the entire community is already strengthened by many other gainfully employed CloudCommuters.

  5. Security in an Insecure World

    Cloud Commuter workers can mitigate security risks. The attack on the World Trade Center was magnified for Greater New York company’s who’s workers were concentrated in the Twin Towers. Catastrophic weather events that temporarily put entire regions out of business are growing more common. Even a flew epidemic disrupts business. However when an organization can broadly distribute human resources throughout an extended region, a single tragedy is less detrimental.

  6. More Productivity Without More Cost

    Numerous studies demonstrate an increase in worker productivity for organizations by their telecommuting employees. And national aggregate productivity could increase with an array of cloud community facilities across the US, promising less time squandered in traffic, faster job placements from wider search nets, lower costs for start-ups, fewer concentrated disruptions, faster collaboration, faster scaling, faster buys, faster sells.

  7. Our Planet Will be Grateful

    Cloud commuting can no longer be reserved for employees with special circumstances, but rather a standard business practice—indeed a best practice. The stakes are too high for workers, for families, for our nation and for the planet. If relieving our transportation infrastructure and reducing traffic isn’t reason enough for cloud commuting, several recent reports stating that the nature, pace and consequences of climate change requiring urgent action certainly is. Beginning with the low hanging fruit, each of us can individually mitigate that risk. If the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil can set off a tornado in Texas, what can one more cloud commuter do? Everyone of us who can just as easily work from home, starting tomorrow, should.

The Cloud Changes Everything

“The Cloud Commuter is highly skilled, eco-friendly, doesn’t take up valuable office space and won’t be asking for health benefits.

FAQ: How do I get my boss to allow me to be a CloudCommuter?

If you are a perfect CloudCommuter candidate but you’re concerned your boss will object, take a look at some sample letters that worked for others. And please send us yours!

DOWNLOAD REPORT