Go Green with Virginia and Telework on August 3rd

Would you stay home or go to a remote location to telework if it was an executive order from the Governor? Apparently that is exactly what Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine is asking of us.

On June 10, 2009, Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine issued an Executive Order to "green" Virginia – calling for reductions in energy consumption and efficiency in state government operations as well as a statewide Telework Day to save the energy of commuting.

I went on the pledge site, and sure enough, there are already organizations that have pledged to allow their telework eligible employees to do so along with pledges from individuals.

Telework to me is all about trust. The organization has to trust that their employees will be productive when they are working away from the office. Employees understand that they aren't going to get credit for simply "showing up". It's a newer way of thinking about work and where one has to be to get things done. It's all about choices. However, it is also very important for an organization offering telework to document what their telework program is by providing policies, agreements and program details to their employees. There is nothing like the feeling of unfairness in an office atmosphere to get the blood boiling at the water cooler.

So what are you waiting for? Go to the site and pledge to Telework. If you need help setting up a telework program at your organization contact Arlington Transportation Partners about how to get started.

Wendy Duren is a Business Development Manager at Arlington Transportation Partners, and commutes with Metrorail daily.

Comments

[Jeannie McPherson]

Reston, VA employer TANDBERG is supporting Statewide Telework Day by encouraging its employees to use video conferencing to work from home today. With half of our staff (75) teleworking, we are eliminating almost two metric tons of carbon emissions and saving almost 100 hours of productivity by not sitting in traffic.

Read more about it here: http://www.tandberg.com/press_room/viewPressRelease.do?id=647&cid=04US060060008

To calculate the cost of your commute and read how companies and agencies have utilized visual communications to go green, visit www.seegreennow.com?cid=04US060060008

Cheers!
Jeannie.McPherson@TANDBERG.com
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