IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v14y2021i21p7177-d670263.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessing Commuting Energy and Emissions Savings through Remote Working and Carpooling: Lessons from an Italian Region

Author

Listed:
  • Michel Noussan

    (Decisio BV, Valkenburgerstraat 212, 1011 ND Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

  • Matteo Jarre

    (Decisio BV, Valkenburgerstraat 212, 1011 ND Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

Abstract

Effective solutions are needed to decrease the greenhouse gases emissions of the transport sector, not only in terms of supply-side measures, but also including demand-side solutions. This paper focuses on the passenger demand related to daily commuting, either for work or study purposes. A bottom-up analysis is presented, which draws from detailed data for Lombardy, the most populous region in Northern Italy, to build an estimate of the annual energy consumption and emissions related to commuting. The potential of different measures to decrease emissions is evaluated, including the renovation of the vehicle stock, higher levels of remote working, and the deployment of carpooling schemes. The results show that the largest part of the current emissions from commuting is caused by car use, both due to its higher modal share and to the higher specific emissions, which are in turn also contributed by the low occupancy rates. The renewal of the current vehicle stock can lead to significant emission savings, thanks to both improved efficiency and higher shares of electrification. Remote working could also play a significant part, especially when it is applied to workers that face the longest commuting distances. Conversely, carpooling seems to be providing lower benefits, not so much because of lower effectiveness but more so because of constraints and barriers to its implementation.

Suggested Citation

  • Michel Noussan & Matteo Jarre, 2021. "Assessing Commuting Energy and Emissions Savings through Remote Working and Carpooling: Lessons from an Italian Region," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-19, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:21:p:7177-:d:670263
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/21/7177/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/21/7177/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Monchambert, Guillaume, 2020. "Why do (or don’t) people carpool for long distance trips? A discrete choice experiment in France," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 911-931.
    2. Ioakimidis, Christos S. & Thomas, Dimitrios & Rycerski, Pawel & Genikomsakis, Konstantinos N., 2018. "Peak shaving and valley filling of power consumption profile in non-residential buildings using an electric vehicle parking lot," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 148-158.
    3. Marialisa Nigro & Marina Ferrara & Rosita De Vincentis & Carlo Liberto & Gaetano Valenti, 2021. "Data Driven Approaches for Sustainable Development of E-Mobility in Urban Areas," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-19, July.
    4. Bartolini, Andrea & Comodi, Gabriele & Salvi, Danilo & Østergaard, Poul Alberg, 2020. "Renewables self-consumption potential in districts with high penetration of electric vehicles," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    5. Leonidas Anthopoulos & Polytimi Kolovou, 2021. "A Multi-Criteria Decision Process for EV Charging Stations’ Deployment: Findings from Greece," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-16, September.
    6. de Abreu e Silva, João & Melo, Patrícia C., 2018. "Does home-based telework reduce household total travel? A path analysis using single and two worker British households," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 148-162.
    7. Shiraki, Hiroto & Matsumoto, Ken'ichi & Shigetomi, Yosuke & Ehara, Tomoki & Ochi, Yuki & Ogawa, Yuki, 2020. "Factors affecting CO2 emissions from private automobiles in Japan: The impact of vehicle occupancy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    8. Zhang, Xudong & Zou, Yuan & Fan, Jie & Guo, Hongwei, 2019. "Usage pattern analysis of Beijing private electric vehicles based on real-world data," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 1074-1085.
    9. Fischer, David & Harbrecht, Alexander & Surmann, Arne & McKenna, Russell, 2019. "Electric vehicles’ impacts on residential electric local profiles – A stochastic modelling approach considering socio-economic, behavioural and spatial factors," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 233, pages 644-658.
    10. Miguel Campaña & Esteban Inga & Jorge Cárdenas, 2021. "Optimal Sizing of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Considering Urban Traffic Flow for Smart Cities," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-16, August.
    11. Nematchoua, Modeste Kameni & Orosa, José A. & Reiter, Sigrid, 2019. "Energy consumption assessment due to the mobility of inhabitants and multiannual prospective on the horizon 2030–2050 in one Belgium city," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 523-534.
    12. Akito Ozawa & Yuki Kudoh, 2021. "Assessing Uncertainties of Life-Cycle CO 2 Emissions Using Hydrogen Energy for Power Generation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-23, October.
    13. Edelenbosch, O.Y. & van Vuuren, D.P. & Blok, K. & Calvin, K. & Fujimori, S., 2020. "Mitigating energy demand sector emissions: The integrated modelling perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 261(C).
    14. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Griffiths, Steve, 2020. "The cultural barriers to a low-carbon future: A review of six mobility and energy transitions across 28 countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    15. Kun Mo Lee & Min Hyeok Lee & Jong Seok Lee & Joo Young Lee, 2020. "Uncertainty Analysis of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Simulated by the Parametric Monte Carlo Simulation and Nonparametric Bootstrap Method," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-15, September.
    16. Liu, Xiaobing & Yan, Xuedong & Liu, Feng & Wang, Rui & Leng, Yan, 2019. "A trip-specific model for fuel saving estimation and subsidy policy making of carpooling based on empirical data," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 240(C), pages 295-311.
    17. Andrew Hook & Victor Court & Benjamin K Sovacool & Steven Sorrell, 2020. "A Systematic Review of the Energy and Climate Impacts of Teleworking," Working Papers hal-03192905, HAL.
    18. Kun Mo LEE & Min Hyeok LEE, 2021. "Uncertainty of the Electricity Emission Factor Incorporating the Uncertainty of the Fuel Emission Factors," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-14, September.
    19. Michel Noussan & Francesco Neirotti, 2020. "Cross-Country Comparison of Hourly Electricity Mixes for EV Charging Profiles," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-14, May.
    20. Lazzeroni, Paolo & Olivero, Sergio & Repetto, Maurizio & Stirano, Federico & Vallet, Marc, 2019. "Optimal battery management for vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-grid operations in a residential case study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 704-721.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michel Noussan & Edoardo Campisi & Matteo Jarre, 2022. "Carbon Intensity of Passenger Transport Modes: A Review of Emission Factors, Their Variability and the Main Drivers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-16, August.
    2. María del Carmen Rey-Merchán & Antonio López-Arquillos & Manuela Pires Rosa & Jesús Manuel Gómez-de-Gabriel, 2022. "Proposal for an Institutional Carpooling System among Workers from the Public-Education Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-10, November.
    3. Lambros Mitropoulos & Annie Kortsari & Emy Apostolopoulou & Georgia Ayfantopoulou & Alexandros Deloukas, 2023. "Multimodal Traveling with Rail and Ride-Sharing: Lessons Learned during Planning and Demonstrating a Pilot Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-21, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Anne Aguiléra & Eléonore Pigalle, 2021. "The Future and Sustainability of Carpooling Practices. An Identification of Research Challenges," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-16, October.
    2. Barone, Giovanni & Buonomano, Annamaria & Forzano, Cesare & Giuzio, Giovanni Francesco & Palombo, Adolfo & Russo, Giuseppe, 2022. "Energy virtual networks based on electric vehicles for sustainable buildings: System modelling for comparative energy and economic analyses," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    3. Oluwasola O. Ademulegun & Paul MacArtain & Bukola Oni & Neil J. Hewitt, 2022. "Multi-Stage Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis for Siting Electric Vehicle Charging Stations within and across Border Regions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-28, December.
    4. Roger Fouquet & Ralph Hippe, 2022. "Twin Transitions of Decarbonisation and Digitalisation: A Historical Perspective on Energy and Information in European Economies," Working Papers 08-22, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC).
    5. Buonomano, Annamaria, 2020. "Building to Vehicle to Building concept: A comprehensive parametric and sensitivity analysis for decision making aims," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 261(C).
    6. Rafael G. Nagel & Vitor Fernão Pires & Jony L. Silveira & Armando Cordeiro & Daniel Foito, 2023. "Financial Analysis of Household Photovoltaic Self-Consumption in the Context of the Vehicle-to-Home ( V2H ) in Portugal," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-21, January.
    7. Mangipinto, Andrea & Lombardi, Francesco & Sanvito, Francesco Davide & Pavičević, Matija & Quoilin, Sylvain & Colombo, Emanuela, 2022. "Impact of mass-scale deployment of electric vehicles and benefits of smart charging across all European countries," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 312(C).
    8. Wöhner, Fabienne, 2022. "Work flexibly, travel less? The impact of telework and flextime on mobility behavior in Switzerland," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    9. Asaad Mohammad & Ramon Zamora & Tek Tjing Lie, 2020. "Integration of Electric Vehicles in the Distribution Network: A Review of PV Based Electric Vehicle Modelling," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-20, September.
    10. Zou, Wenke & Sun, Yongjun & Gao, Dian-ce & Zhang, Xu & Liu, Junyao, 2023. "A review on integration of surging plug-in electric vehicles charging in energy-flexible buildings: Impacts analysis, collaborative management technologies, and future perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 331(C).
    11. Zhou, Yuekuan & Cao, Sunliang & Hensen, Jan L.M. & Lund, Peter D., 2019. "Energy integration and interaction between buildings and vehicles: A state-of-the-art review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1-1.
    12. Li, Xiaohui & Wang, Zhenpo & Zhang, Lei & Sun, Fengchun & Cui, Dingsong & Hecht, Christopher & Figgener, Jan & Sauer, Dirk Uwe, 2023. "Electric vehicle behavior modeling and applications in vehicle-grid integration: An overview," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    13. Kılkış, Şiir, 2021. "Transition towards urban system integration and benchmarking of an urban area to accelerate mitigation towards net-zero targets," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).
    14. María del Carmen Rey-Merchán & Antonio López-Arquillos & Manuela Pires Rosa, 2022. "Carpooling Systems for Commuting among Teachers: An Expert Panel Analysis of Their Barriers and Incentives," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-12, July.
    15. Caldarola, Bernardo & Sorrell, Steve, 2022. "Do teleworkers travel less? Evidence from the English National Travel Survey," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 282-303.
    16. Juan Ramón López Soler & Panayotis Christidis & José Manuel Vassallo, 2021. "Teleworking and Online Shopping: Socio-Economic Factors Affecting Their Impact on Transport Demand," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-24, June.
    17. Leonidas G. Anthopoulos & Dimitrios N. Tzimos, 2021. "Carpooling Platforms as Smart City Projects: A Bibliometric Analysis and Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-29, September.
    18. Hannah Villeneuve & Ahmed Abdeen & Maya Papineau & Sharane Simon & Cynthia Cruickshank & William O'Brien, 2020. "New insights on the energy impacts of telework," Carleton Economic Papers 20-20, Carleton University, Department of Economics.
    19. Lei Wang & Wenxiang Li & Jinxian Weng & Dong Zhang & Wanjing Ma, 2023. "Do low-carbon rewards incentivize people to ridesplitting? Evidence from structural analysis," Transportation, Springer, vol. 50(5), pages 2077-2109, October.
    20. Felipe Gonzalez & Marc Petit & Yannick Perez, 2021. "Plug-in behavior of electric vehicles users: Insights from a large-scale trial and impacts for grid integration studies," Post-Print hal-03363782, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:21:p:7177-:d:670263. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.