GlobalEnviroBlog

Statistics have shown time and again that telework has the effect of increasing productivity, lowering production costs, eliminating commuting costs and drastically reducing absenteeism. Why, then, are employers so resistant to the concept?

The simple truth is employers think employees won’t do their work if they work from home. And employees feel that their job will be exported to Mumbai, India, if they work from home. It is this mutual distrust that has slowed progress on earning our freedom from foreign oil.

There is a simple solution to this stalemate. If work is based on units of production completed instead of hourly wages, people working from home will be more productive than those working on the time clock. Working from home actually reduces the costs of production while increasing the disposable income of Americans. Companies will realize greater production and lower costs. Employees will gain by saving commuting time and eliminating the ever-rising commuting costs.

As to the other half of the equation, employers need to get away from short-sighted cost accounting and move toward strengthening markets. Many companies have fallen into the cost-accounting trap. Management sees the export of American jobs to overseas locations as a quick way to improve the bottom line. Unfortunately, the companies don’t raise the standard of living in the countries to which they export jobs. The long-term result is a lowering of the buying power of the American workforce, their main market.

Really, companies that export American jobs to countries because they can pay $2.50 per hour instead of $12.00 per hour or more are doing immeasurable harm to the United States of America. The American Dream is being ruthlessly denied to most Americans in order to show a temporary and artificial profit. Even the stockholders of these companies face reduced returns on investment. The CEOs and other top executives of these companies reward themselves with astronomical bonuses and walk away from the problems they create. The problems become somebody else’s problems.

It may take federal and state legislation to restore the American Dream to everyone. I believe American jobs must be protected. We must break the addiction to foreign oil, NOW!

Richard Moolick

Global-EnviroBlog

Call 4 Action

by
Richard T. Moolick, Jr.

Cities across America have been told that they have to improve air quality and reduce carbon emissions. So far, the solutions in the news ignore a quick and highly achievable method of reducing the emissions.

Whether you think global warming is a human-influenced disaster in the making or that it’s just a natural cycle, it makes sense that we should reduce our carbon footprint. Nobody wants to breathe filthy air or live in a world-wide garbage dump. And nobody wants to face the prospect of having the cost of energy wipe out all economic advances.

A dramatic reduction can be achieved almost overnight and very low cost with the first step in the plan for reducing carbon emissions. A practical plan for reducing carbon emissions is listed below:

Step 1:

Many of the workers in many American cities are involved in jobs that do not deal with the public on a face-to-face basis. These jobs include call centers, data centers and other jobs that deal almost exclusively with computers and /or telephones.
 
The vast majority of these jobs can be done from home using virtual private network technologies. The benefits of performing these jobs by telecommuting are as follows:

1. The number of cars on the road is reduced by a significant amount, reducing traffic congestion, carbon emission and road wear-and tear.

2. The employee saves money by not having to spend the fuel to commute to and from work. The reduced commute saves the employee an average of 170 hours per year and about 280 gallons of gasoline per year or about $840.00 per year.

3. The reduced congestion on the highways saves other commuters significant time and money due to reduced commute times.

4. Companies will realize greater productivities from the vast majority of the teleworkers as well as reduced absenteeism and lower energy costs due to reduced office footprints.

5. Governments will realize a significant reduction in highway maintenance expenses and a significant reduction in carbon emissions. (One has only to look at the air on a Wednesday and compare it to the air on a Saturday to see the difference.

6. The VPN technologies exist today and only a minimal investment in expanded bandwidth will be needed to take a large number of cars off the road.

 Step 2:

Provide incentive grants to homeowners and businesses to increase the use of alternative energy. These grants would serve to make the installation of solar, wind or other alternative energy technologies more affordable to the homeowners. By reducing the carbon footprint of the American home, the grant program would pay for itself in reduced reliance on foreign energy and reduced carbon emissions.

Step 3:

Develop business incubators to encourage innovation and business development in alternatives to foreign petroleum. The incubators should concentrate aid for small innovative businesses.

Step 4:

Issue a mandate that requires all automobiles to move toward renewable energy immediately. This should include pressure for auto makers to produce electric and hydrogen-powered cars. Additional development of hydrogen-on-demand systems such as those being developed by Ecotality, AlGalCo LLC. and other innovators should be funded and nurtured.

Step 5:

Require all new construction to use green technologies to reduce the energy footprint. A side-benefit of these requirements will have the benefit of increasing usage and thus reducing costs of solar and other alternate energy technologies.

Step 6:

Aggressively pursue a cradle-to-grave environmental policy on all levels. Wherever possible, all new items (grocery bags to cars to building materials) must be made of materials that are recyclable, renewable and environmentally friendly.

If the above plan is pursued on a local, state and national level, the air over our cities will become much cleaner and our dependence on foreign energy will be substantially reduced without adversely impacting our standard of living.