Working wisely.

If your boss asked you to work an extra day a week without pay, you would probably tell him where to go. But that's precisely what the average British commuter does - simply travelling to and from work.

The UK has the longest commuting times in Europe - on average seven hours a week, or the equivalent of 47 additional working days each year - double that of the Italians and Swedes. The nation's average working week is also among the highest in Europe - with nearly five million employees working on average an extra day a week. The average UK worker commutes 2,906 miles a year by car. City commuters cover shorter distances but spend more time behind the wheel because of increased traffic congestion. Commuting to work causes pollution, adds to our stress levels and means we get to spend less time with our families.

We are committed to changing all that and will help to spearhead a campaign to encourage more organisations to adopt smarter working practices - such as flexible working, remote working, mobile working and working from home. The goal is to increase UK business productivity and competitiveness while reducing transport congestion and pollution, improving health, assisting disadvantaged groups and harmonising work and family commitments. The Work Wise UK http://www.workwiseuk.org/ initiative was launched at a recent summit in London at the start of the three-year programme, organised by InterForum - a not-for-profit organisation that helps British businesses to trade electronically.

No one questions that organisations have to become more and more agile in meeting external demands. Unless the UK changes some of its cost structures, it will not be able to compete with the emerging economies of China and India. As leaders, we must apply the same thinking to our own people and the growing outside demands placed upon them.

Flexible working is business as usual. It increases productivity, cuts costs, motivates people and releases more potential. Flexible working also encourages the inclusion of many groups of people for whom traditional employment patterns are unsuitable - such as people with mobility problems, parents with young children or people who care for an elderly relative.

We are keen to share the success of smarter working – all of our engineering staff have the ability to work from home. We have individuals spread across the south-east, involved in different aspects of our projects, working against tight deadlines and having to differentiate in an ever more competitive market. At the same time, there is a healthy belief that family life is more important, to most sane people, than the workplace. We are passionate about smarter working and hope the Work Wise UK initiative will serve as a wake up call for public and private sectors to embrace change in working styles, policies and behaviours.

The benefits of adopting smarter working include reducing office space running costs, staff take less sick leave and can be up to 20 per cent more productive, staff retention rate following maternity leave is higher when compared with the UK average, and as a result of staff travelling less they are saving fuel - resulting in less CO2 being generated.

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2 nd June 2008:

Both the Met Office and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have advised businesses to encourage home working, saying this brings ecological as well as economic benefits.

Speaking at the Workwise UK Conference in London last week, Dr Richard Betts, head of climate impacts at the Met Office, told zdnet.co.uk that home working could also allow businesses to operate from smaller premises, saving money. Betts said: "There are financial incentives and compelling corporate social responsibility incentives. Companies are affected by legislation. When legislation comes in regulating carbon emissions, companies encouraging home working will be ahead of the game."

The government is in the process of drafting legislation to govern carbon emissions. The Climate Change Bill has been in draft since March 2007. One of the aims of the bill is to establish targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions - including making the UK's Kyoto Agreement targets for a 60 per cent reduction by 2050 legally binding.

Betts said letting employees work from home can significantly reduce carbon emissions. He said "Let's say working from home cuts out a half-hour commute in the car. Day to day that can have a huge impact. Avoiding air travel through teleconferencing can also have a huge impact."

Betts added it is also in the global public interest to reduce carbon emissions. In a speech giving evidence about climate change being caused primarily by carbon emissions, Betts said greenhouse gas concentrations are increasing, the global average temperature has increased by 0.7 degrees Celsius over the past 100 years, sea levels have risen by 20cm since the beginning of the 19th century, and worldwide snow cover is melting.

Betts said: "The cost of inaction will be many times greater than the cost of action," who added that businesses could also use information about green initiatives to promote their images.

Environment Minister Hilary Benn, who was also speaking at the conference, said companies could save commuting time and money by encouraging home working. Benn said: "Smarter working is all about flexibility. You can cut emissions, reduce congestion, and save resources, time, and money. Fundamentally what we need to do is put a price on carbon."

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29 th May 2008:

Environment Minister Hilary Benn again rebuffed calls this week for WW2-style energy rationing to return to the UK. He was responding to a Select Committee report urging ministers to issue 45 million Britons with an energy trading "credit card" - a mammoth techno-bureaucratic exercise costing several billions of pounds a year to operate. The ration, or "personal carbon allowance" is a measure of an individual's energy usage, either at home or traveling. Such usage is capped, and "further emissions rights will simply not be available," the Committee says. You may choose between a holiday, and turning on the heating.

The Committee, chaired by Tim Yeo MP, lauds the potential for "engagement", which will "increase awareness" of energy consumption - what the Tyndall Centre calls "carbon consciousness" - which in turn would "spearhead behavioral change". According to the MPs, "awareness is crucial if behaviours are to change."

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