We need to plan for much greater integration of
homes and workspaces if we are going to meet carbon reduction
targets, according to an influential group of thinkers,
practitioners and policy-makers across the private, public and
not-for-profit sectors. Home is where the work is for an ever
growing number of people – 12% of the workforce, and 41% of
businesses.
A shake-up of policy across the board is needed – planning
policy, enterprise policy and transport policy in particular. If we
carry on as if nothing has changed, we will be designing-in
unsustainable working and commuting practices. Instead we need to
plan for much increased levels of home-based working if we wish to
achieve a low carbon economy.
The need for a radical rethink is put forward in a new report
from think-tank The Smith Institute, Can Homeworking Save the
Planet? How homes can become workspace in a low carbon economy
launched at the British Academy on November 19th by Matthew Taylor
MP.
According to the authors, the gradual approaches we now have to
reducing carbon are not enough. Simply making homes, offices and
cars more energy efficient will not deliver the scale of benefits
needed if we still have work patterns rooted in the industrial age.
What is needed is a radically new approach to where and how we work,
that will substantially reduce the need to commute and the need to
build separate workplaces.
The report provides new evidence of the sustainability impacts of
new ways of working using information and communication
technologies. The barriers to maximising the benefits from these are
partly cultural and partly rooted in policies based on outdated
assumptions.
The report’s editors are Tim Dwelly, Director of the Live/Work
Network, and Andy Lake, editor of Flexibility.co.uk.
According to Tim Dwelly, “The government has plans to build
3 million new homes, mostly within commuting distance of London,
plus huge amounts of new office space. Instead of building for the
old world of work, the government should be planning for homes that
include space for work, and new communities that include live/work
quarters and local work hubs that support home-based enterprises.
Social housing providers often ban working from home. They need to
turn this around, and build homes and developments that enable
people to work as well as put a roof over their heads.”
Andy Lake said: “The eco-towns proposals are basically fig leafs
covering the nakedness of business-as-usual in planning and
development. The authors in this report are putting forward creative
approaches for policy-makers to create the infrastructure for low
carbon working. We need to plan for the home as a centre for
multiple activities, including work, study, healthcare, food
production and increased social interaction. We should be planning
for enterprising communities, not dormitories for commuters.”
The report includes essays by:
- Kate Barker, Adviser to HM Treasury and author of the Barker
Review of the Planning System
- Richard Simmons, Chief Executive of the Commission for
Architecture & the Built Environment;
- Gideon Amos, Chief Executive of the Town and Country
Planning Association
- Susheel Rao, Sustainability Adviser to the Duchy of Cornwall
- Stephen Glaister, Executive Director of the RAC Foundation
- Dennis Pamlin, Global Policy Advisor at the WWF
- Caroline Waters, Director of People and Policy at BT
- David Cowans, Group Chief Executive of Places for People
- Peter James, Professor of Environmental Management at
Bradford University
- Colin Mason, Professor of Entrepreneurship at Strathclyde
University
- Tim Dwelly, Director of the Live/Work Network, and
- Andy Lake, editor of Flexibility.co.uk
Each essay provides its own perspective, and together they
provide powerful arguments for moving homeworking and flexibility
closer to the centre of policy for addressing climate change.
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