I've said it once, and I've said it again - learning nothing from COVID was a complete waste of a catastrophe.
Ask HN: Why isn't remote work advertised as a pro environment initiative?
251–260 of 508 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't remote work advertised as a pro environment initiative?
#252Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't intend to de-rail the convo, but this is an important one. > improve inter-family relationships It could , maybe, but it can also be a significant source of strife. It's tough spending all day, every day with someone. Because of that, you find that people are either looking for larger homes in order to have private work spaces or renting office space. Both of those shift the cost burden from the company to th…
This. FFS who wants to stay home to live and work!?!? I don’t understand WFH. the right way is to have better public transport and cheaper housing, not secluded lives.
I agree with you that better public transportation and cheaper housing would be a respectable path towards a better society in general.
However, please don't state that "the right way is to have... not secluded lives." Some of us absolutely enjoy the seclusion, especially this WFH Alaskan.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't remote work advertised as a pro environment initiative?
#253Non remote business should pay more in taxes bc of damage done to the environment.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't remote work advertised as a pro environment initiative?
#254Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't intend to de-rail the convo, but this is an important one. > improve inter-family relationships It could , maybe, but it can also be a significant source of strife. It's tough spending all day, every day with someone. Because of that, you find that people are either looking for larger homes in order to have private work spaces or renting office space. Both of those shift the cost burden from the company to th…
This. FFS who wants to stay home to live and work!?!? I don’t understand WFH. the right way is to have better public transport and cheaper housing, not secluded lives.
> secluded lives.
Remember that "pandemic remote work" is not at all normal remote work. I have a social life outside of my coworkers. I can work from places that aren't my home office - a cafe, a coworking space, whatever - even if it's just a couple hours to get out of the house.
It need not be seclusion.
> better public transport and cheaper housing
Yeah, well, no argument from me here.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't remote work advertised as a pro environment initiative?
#255Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't intend to de-rail the convo, but this is an important one. > improve inter-family relationships It could , maybe, but it can also be a significant source of strife. It's tough spending all day, every day with someone. Because of that, you find that people are either looking for larger homes in order to have private work spaces or renting office space. Both of those shift the cost burden from the company to th…
This. FFS who wants to stay home to live and work!?!? I don’t understand WFH. the right way is to have better public transport and cheaper housing, not secluded lives.
This only makes sense if you were born and raised in San Francisco, Seattle, Milan, London, Dublin, Munchen, Berlin, Amsterdam or some other big tech city.
Otherwise your statement just doesn’t make sense.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't remote work advertised as a pro environment initiative?
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly this is the reason, but I'll go even further and say that no corporation will advertise something "green" that might require actual effort on their part. The clear fact is that environmental impact is almost entirely the fault of corporations. Advertising for consumers to do anything to impact this is distracting them from the real issue: the corporations advertising to them. It is for this reason that you wi…
In my experiencing greenwashing is just as likely to be used to shame normal consumer behavior into reducing costs for businesses (do you really want those plastic utensils with your takeout? Do you really need to use that much water in your hotel room? Do you really need fresh towels every day?) as it is to actually help the environment. Most of the time corporations claim to be doing something in a carbon-neutral w…
> do you really want those plastic utensils with your takeout?
There's a place where I always uncheck "include utensils" and they always give me 8 people's worth of them anyways.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't remote work advertised as a pro environment initiative?
#257Earlier quoted context omitted.
because it’s more expensive to let it get cold and then heat it back up again
Any evidence to support this? I've heard otherwise.
Yes it follows from first principles, a well-insulated house has a structure that is being heated and retains heat (like a pizza stone) as well as the air itself. Heating air inside a cold structure is quite different from heating air inside a warm structure. So your evening heating will have to work harder to warm the structure back up that was allowed to cool in the day. The air in the evening will cool faster and the heating will have to kick back on again, dumping heat into the structure.
If you leave the heat on during the day (and that can be a few degrees lower) then you can keep the structure warm and avoid all that evening heat loss and cycling. But only if you have good insulation. Otherwise you’re just dumping heat out into the environment. The other factor is how cold it is outside, if the temperature gradient is steep then it’s harder to contain hot air.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't remote work advertised as a pro environment initiative?
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
The average commute in a large city is definitely not 2-3 hours one way .
When I lived in New York. I left for the train at 545 and got to work between 830 and 9. I don’t think this is the average commute, but millions of people do this every day.
NYC was fun in my 20s, but I could not believe the older people I was working with spent ~3 hours per day commuting to and from Manhattan and NJ/CT/NY.
Their entire life, Mon to Fri, was wake up, go to work, maybe spend an hour with kids or watch TV, go to sleep, and repeat.
And they did not get paid enough to do it from age 30 to 55 or even 65. The only amount of pay that would be enough would be an amount that allows you to quit that nonsense life after a few years.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't remote work advertised as a pro environment initiative?
#259Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly this is the reason, but I'll go even further and say that no corporation will advertise something "green" that might require actual effort on their part. The clear fact is that environmental impact is almost entirely the fault of corporations. Advertising for consumers to do anything to impact this is distracting them from the real issue: the corporations advertising to them. It is for this reason that you wi…
In my experiencing greenwashing is just as likely to be used to shame normal consumer behavior into reducing costs for businesses (do you really want those plastic utensils with your takeout? Do you really need to use that much water in your hotel room? Do you really need fresh towels every day?) as it is to actually help the environment. Most of the time corporations claim to be doing something in a carbon-neutral w…
At its core, "reduce" generally benefits both the environment and the bottom line. Additionally, many employees wish their company was more environmental, but cannot make their case unless it aligns with the business.
A slight rewording of your point highlights the opportunity: change happens when business and environmental needs align. This means, the people's best (only) play is to craft policies and institutions that align business incentives with environmental goals (e.g. emission cap 'n trade, grants, etc.). For example, a central repository of public holistic impact assessments could force PR teams to focus on real impact over trivial greenwashing campaigns.
While the national level gets the most focus, local/state governments can move move faster and serve as models for larger change.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't remote work advertised as a pro environment initiative?
#260For my case, it was worse. When normalized to dollars, I spent nearly 2x more in HVAC expenses compared to driving's fuel costs, and that's with a modest commute (20 miles). Its much less energy intensive to air condition one large medium-density building than many smaller low-density buildings.