Bankitalia: With smart working, emissions drop from 4.1 to 1.1 kg per day per employee

Smart working is environmentally friendly due to the lower impact of fossil fuel consumption for those who work remotely compared to those generated by home-to-work travel for in-presence activity. The evidence was measured by the Bank of Italy for its employees in a research project in collaboration with Enea. The Bank of Italy's adoption of the hybrid work model has brought benefits in environmental terms linked primarily to the decrease in home-work travel and lower energy consumption in the workplace, only partly offset by the increase in domestic energy consumption. The research project carried out with ENEA made it possible to estimate the average daily per-capita greenhouse gas emissions associated with employees' home-work journeys, which amount to 4.1 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent, and those of the extra domestic consumption of electricity and heat due to remote work, which amount to 1.1 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent. This is indicated by the Bank of Italy in its new Management and Sustainability Report.

Smart working at Banca d'Italia averages 38% with a peak of 42% (average share of days worked remotely) for the bank's central administration. The Bank, we read in the new publication Management and Sustainability Report 2024, has therefore activated a sustainable mobility plan and updated the plans for the home-work journeys of staff working in the offices of Rome and Frascati and six branches: the aim of the plans is to identify and implement measures to limit the use of their own vehicle to reach work. In order to reduce the use of fossil fuels in the home-work commute, the company has almost completed the installation of 23 turrets for rapid recharging of electric cars in the company parking areas of the main buildings in Rome and Frascati, and has also installed recharging stations for electric bicycles and scooters at some branches.

In 2024 the share of remote working (in terms of remote days out of the total number of actual working days) averaged 38%, with a higher rate in the central administration (42%) and a lower rate in the territorial network (28%), depending on the different levels of teleworking processes. 77% of the workforce operates in organisational units with a limit of at least 10 days per month and 100 per year that can be worked remotely; specific flexibilities are provided to accommodate those with special personal needs.