The push is on to get Calgarians to work from home at least a couple days a week to help reduce the environmental footprint.
The city launched its second annual WORKshift week so this is the week to sell your boss on the idea of working from home.
In the past year, 100 city employees have been working from home one day a week.
As a result, the program has cut out over 40,000 thousand kilograms of green house gas emissions and 200,000 thousand kilometres of vehicular travel.
"What we're doing is building a template that will be rolled out across the rest of the country in the coming year," said Robyn Bews, WORKshift, Project Manager, "To that end we're getting commuters off the roads and we're encouraging people to spend more time with their families and be more productive."
The idea is slowly catching on but it's still difficult to convince businesses that telecommuting creates a happier, more productive working environment.
"We're working with businesses specifically to get them to start thinking about management in a different way and encouraging employees to work where and when they're the most efficient," said Bews.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi is a big proponent of the WORKshift program.
He uses Skype to talk to various groups across the country and encourages his staff to work from home as often as possible.
For more information on the WORKshift program click on the link.
