A new investigation has revealed that working from home just one day a week more than you usually do could yield the Netherlands 3,9 billion euros a year. 

Working from home

These figures have been released through an investigation by accountancy firm PwC. If people living and working in the Netherlands work from home one day more a week than they did before the coronavirus lockdown, it could save society 3,9 billion euros per year. 

PwC assumes that half of the nine million-strong Dutch workforce can continue to work from home after the coronavirus and save employers up to 1,681 billion euros. The other savings would mainly come from lower rent prices for office space, lower energy costs, and lower catering costs. Employees would also be able to save a total of around one billion euros a year by saving money on commuting.

Because of the intelligent lockdown implemented in the Netherlands, people across the country have been forced to work from home until offices and businesses opened up again. While some companies have already started phasing back into office work, many people continue to do their jobs from home. It is also predicted that, because efficiency and productivity didn’t decrease while people were working from home, many companies may loosen their policies on working remotely after the coronavirus. 

Good for the environment

This switch to a culture more supportive of working from home would also have significant impacts on CO2 emissions, and benefit the environment. There would be less daily commuters if everyone works one extra day at home, and it would save 606 kilotonnes of CO2 emissions in the Netherlands.

The average person in the Netherlands has a greenhouse gas footprint of 15,8 tonnes in 2018. So, the savings that would be made by people not having to drive or take public transport to work every day would be equal to the footprint of almost 40.000 Dutch people.