With each environmental concern, it is sometimes difficult for me not to consider telework as a solution. By no means am I suggesting that telework can be a one size fits all solution for all circumstances nor am I proclaiming telework as the savior to all we know and love.

But… I can’t help but advocate for the impact telework may have if only we used it as effectively as we could and should. By now, I am sure the majority of you have heard about the devastation the BP oil spill has caused in the Gulf of Mexico.

Not only has the spill harmed our environment, but the spill is harming our businesses, our industries, our economies, and ultimately our communities. There is ever growing heat on BP to improve the slow response.

Such a spill calls on us to ask greater questions about our nation’s reliance on oil, much of it to fuel our cars that we drive alone to work. Would we be at less of a risk for these kinds of issues if our reliance was lower? Demand was less? And could we lower both reliance and demand if we just teleworked more?

Interestingly, BP also recently reported a global decline in both oil consumption and production. Readers, what do you make of all this? Don’t let me speculate alone, now.

Adeel Lari, M.B.A., P.E.
Director of Innovative Financing, Research Fellow, and Teleworker
Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs
University of Minnesota