IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/trapol/v175y2026ics0967070x25004081.html

How can we maximize the environmental benefits of teleworking? — A simulation and global sensitivity analysis of English teleworkers

Author

Listed:
  • Shi, Yao
  • Sorrell, Steven
  • Foxon, Tim

Abstract

With the increasing popularity of teleworking after the Covid-19 pandemic and the urgent threat of climate change, there is growing interest in its potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transport. While some studies have explored the environmental benefits of teleworking, most fail to address the significant uncertainty associated with it. Few of these studies have applied sophisticated mathematical methods to explore how we can maximize the environmental benefits of teleworking, and even fewer have considered the distributions of input variables. Our study aims to fill these gaps based on historical data observations.

Suggested Citation

  • Shi, Yao & Sorrell, Steven & Foxon, Tim, 2026. "How can we maximize the environmental benefits of teleworking? — A simulation and global sensitivity analysis of English teleworkers," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:175:y:2026:i:c:s0967070x25004081
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103865
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X25004081
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103865?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Fu, Miao & Andrew Kelly, J. & Peter Clinch, J. & King, Fearghal, 2012. "Environmental policy implications of working from home: Modelling the impacts of land-use, infrastructure and socio-demographics," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 416-423.
    3. Wang, Richard & Ye, Zhongnan & Lu, Miaojia & Hsu, Shu-Chien, 2022. "Understanding post-pandemic work-from-home behaviours and community level energy reduction via agent-based modelling," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 322(C).
    4. Sampath, Srikanth & Saxena, Somitra & Mokhtarian, Patricia L., 1991. "The Effectiveness of Telecommuting as a Transportation Control Measure," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt0km7985p, University of California Transportation Center.
    5. Patricia L Mokhtarian & Gustavo O Collantes & Carsten Gertz, 2004. "Telecommuting, Residential Location, and Commute-Distance Traveled: Evidence from State of California Employees," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(10), pages 1877-1897, October.
    6. Marz, Waldemar & Şen, Suphi, 2022. "Does telecommuting reduce commuting emissions?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    7. Kim, Seung-Nam & Choo, Sangho & Mokhtarian, Patricia L., 2015. "Home-based telecommuting and intra-household interactions in work and non-work travel: A seemingly unrelated censored regression approach," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 197-214.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. O'Keefe, Paul & Caulfield, Brian & Brazil, William & White, Peter, 2016. "The impacts of telecommuting in Dublin," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 13-20.
    11. 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.
    12. Tian, Wei, 2013. "A review of sensitivity analysis methods in building energy analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 411-419.
    13. Wu, Hongyue & Chang, Yuan & Chen, Yunfeng, 2024. "Greenhouse gas emissions under work from home vs. office: An activity-based individual-level accounting model," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 353(PB).
    14. Henderson, Dennis K. & Koenig, Brett E. & Mokhtarian, Patricia L., 1996. "Using Travel Diary Data to Estimate the Emissions Impacts of Transportation Strategies: The Puget Sound Telecommuting Demonstration Project," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt0g01v83p, University of California Transportation Center.
    15. Mokhtarian, Patricia L & Koenig, Brett E & Henderson, Dennis K, 1995. "The Travel and Emissions Impacts of Telecommuting for the State of California Telecommuting Pilot Project," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt6rw695kc, University of California Transportation Center.
    16. Matteo Sostero & Santo Milasi & John Hurley & Enrique Fernandez-Macias & Martina Bisello, 2020. "Teleworkability and the COVID-19 crisis: a new digital divide?," JRC Working Papers on Labour, Education and Technology 2020-05, Joint Research Centre.
    17. Crawford, Fiona, 2020. "Segmenting travellers based on day-to-day variability in work-related travel behaviour," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. Böhnen, Carina & Kuhnimhof, Tobias, 2024. "Working from home and commuter travel in germany – panel data analysis of long-term effects," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    4. Bouzaghrane, Mohamed Amine & Obeid, Hassan & Villas-Boas, Sofia B. & Walker, Joan, 2024. "Influence of telecommuting on out-of-home time use and diversity of locations visited: Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    5. Qi, Cong & Li, Shuang & Guo, Xiucheng, 2026. "Examining the causal effects of teleworking on mode-specific travel frequencies: A double machine learning analysis using panel data," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    6. 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.
    7. 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).
    8. Balepur, Prashant Narayan, 1998. "Impacts of Computer-Mediated Communication on Travel and Communication Patterns: The Davis Community Network Study," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt6cb1f85c, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    9. Versigghel, Jente & Ermagun, Alireza & Hook, Hannah & De Vos, Jonas & Witlox, Frank, 2026. "The new commute: Is teleworking stimulating residential and workplace relocations?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    10. Kappler, Laísa Braga & de Abreu e Silva, João, 2025. "Telework frequency and travel behaviour during the later stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. A study across different Metropolitan Areas: Lisbon, Istanbul, and Porto Alegre," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    11. van Lent, Stella J. & Ulak, M. Baran & Wismans, Luc J.J. & Geurs, Karst T., 2025. "The impact of teleworking in hybrid job accessibility in the Netherlands: A novel agent-based modelling framework," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    12. Tian, Guang & Jenkins, Bryce & Danton, Bob, 2025. "Quantifying the influences of telecommuting on household total trips and VMT generation," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    13. João de Abreu e Silva, 2022. "Residential preferences, telework perceptions, and the intention to telework: insights from the Lisbon Metropolitan Area during the COVID‐19 pandemic," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(S1), pages 142-161, November.
    14. Kogus, Ayelet & Brůhová Foltýnová, Hana & Gal-Tzur, Ayelet & Shiftan, Yuval & Vejchodská, Eliška & Shiftan, Yoram, 2022. "Will COVID-19 accelerate telecommuting? A cross-country evaluation for Israel and Czechia," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 291-309.
    15. Anik, Md Asif Hasan & Khan, Nazmul Arefin & Habib, Muhammad Ahsanul, 2024. "Mapping the interplay of work-arrangement, residential location, and activity engagement within an integrated model," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    16. Melo, Patrícia C. & de Abreu e Silva, João, 2017. "Home telework and household commuting patterns in Great Britain," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 1-24.
    17. Minh Hieu Nguyen, 2021. "Factors influencing home-based telework in Hanoi (Vietnam) during and after the COVID-19 era," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(6), pages 3207-3238, December.
    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. 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.
    20. 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.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:eee:trapol:v:175:y:2026:i:c:s0967070x25004081. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/30473/description#description .

    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.