The energy crisis announced give an air of confinement in the winter of 2022? While the government aims to reduce energy consumption by 10% by 2024, the Minister of Transformation and the Public Service, Stanislas Guerini, mentioned at the end of August the possibility of encouraging the public administration to resort to massive way to telecommuting. The measure would be intended to save electricity and gas in a context of sharp rise in prices and threats of cuts. “Can we imagine that on a given day, we could have agents telework to be able to close a building, not heat it, light it?”, he wondered during an interview on Cnews.
A line of thought that the Ministry of Labor is also considering for private sector companies, according to information from our colleagues from the Parisian. Teleworking “could be a good option depending on the circumstances; if it is feasible for them and adapted to their activity”, explains the ministry.
Very small savings for companies
According to an assessment by the Ecological Transition Agency, this measure would allow companies to save 19% in energy, provided that all employees work from home on the same day. “It is unlikely that 100% of employees will work from home on the same day”, nuance however Myriam Maestroni, president of the E5T foundation, a think tank for the environment and energy transition. “Especially since nearly two-thirds of French people are not eligible for teleworking,” she recalls.
Lamis Aljounaidi, infrastructure economist and director of Paris Infrastructure Advisory, also points out that the energy consumption of tertiary companies cannot really be zero. “Even if there is no one, the air conditioning works at a minimum to preserve air quality,” she explains. “And it only takes one or two employees to come to the office, so that the energy gain is no longer so obvious”.
A statement shared by the president of Medef, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux. “I do not believe that this solution saves energy, despite what people say,” he said on France 2 Wednesday, September 7. “For teleworking to be energy efficient, offices must be completely closed. However, in general, some employees telework while others do not. So there are no heating savings in offices. . […] The complete energy balances of teleworking are not at all obvious”.
Transfer of consumption to households
And if some companies could make some energy savings by generalizing teleworking, the households concerned would see their consumption increase. Because by working from home, employees use their computer, heat all day in winter, cook at noon… “This risks creating a transfer of consumption between the workplace and the home”, analyzes the economist Myriam Maestroni. “The statistics from the first confinement, from March to May 2020, are very telling. All CO2 emissions have fallen, in all sectors combined, except in housing, where we observe an increase of almost 30%” .
According to a study by the electricity and gas contract offer comparator Selectra, published in 2021, the additional cost caused by a month of confinement for electric heating and natural gas is between 18 and 97 euros, depending on the size. housing. “So I’m not sure that in the heart of winter telework produces sobriety”, comments Myriam Maestroni. In addition, “residential energy consumption is generally higher than that of tertiary companies, which are often better insulated”, points out the economist of infrastructures Lamis Aljounaidi. “In France today, nearly 15 million homes are overconsumption, advances Myriam Maestroni. This means that they consume six to nine times more than a renovated or new home or business premises”.
To offset these additional costs for public employees, the government plans to rely on compensation for teleworking costs of 2.50 euros per day, already governed by an agreement signed in 2021. Some private companies are already experimenting with it. But trade unions, including the CFDT, plead to revalue this allowance because of soaring energy prices.
Reduction of CO2 emissions linked to transport
While it has not yet been fully proven that teleworking saves energy, it is however certain that encouraging employees to work from home would reduce greenhouse gas emissions. related to mobility. According to a study by the Environment and Energy Management Agency (Ademe), on the impact of teleworking on the reduction of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, ” teleworking makes it possible, on average, to reduce the environmental impacts associated with commuting between home and the workplace by around 30%.
For an average of 3 teleworking days per week, this represents a potential saving of nearly 800 kg of CO2 per individual per year. “If the teleworking movement is massive enough to avoid metro, car, bus traffic … There may be a net gain”, adds the director of Paris infrastructure Advisory Lamis Aljounaidi.
Not so obvious, then, to say that teleworking can be a major tool for saving energy. A complete sobriety plan should be presented at the end of September for the public sector, while at the same time working groups have been launched by the government with representatives of businesses, supermarkets and local authorities, around the same goal of sobriety.