Half of the world’s population has been under lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid-19 pandemic, leading to a large shift of activities from offices to homes. Despite the inefficiencies exposed on the reliability of critical systems such as the energy system, this unprecedented situation also revealed opportunities for enhancing sustainability. A study, conducted by KTU‘s Chief Researcher, Dr. Paris Fokaides and his research group, demonstrated the degree the adoption of remote working models can help to combat significant energy and environmental issues and in consequence contribute to the development of smart cities.
The study looked into the role of remote working during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the effects on sustainability in the context of smart cities. Mixed scenarios of working at the office, home office, and working at a co-working space and a set of impact indicators and GIS application, allowed to demonstrate the contribution of remote working models in tackling significant energy and environmental challenges that need to address for the realization of smart cities. The work provides insights into how remote working models can contribute to energy and environmental challenges for the transition of European cities to smart energy regions. The study, which builds upon the research conducted at the Sustainable Energy in the Built Environment Research Group of KTU, delivers indicators related to the mitigation of climate change that may be achieved with different forms of remote working.
“We created insights into how remote working models can contribute to energy and environmental challenges for the transition of European cities to smart energy regions: at least 4,0 L of transportation fuel and 7,4 kg of carbon dioxide can be saved per hour of remote work per 100 employees for the case of Cyprus”, – P. Fokaides told.
The study was recognized by the scientific community, with more than 8000 online views (as of 05nd Nov 2021) within a year after its publication, becoming the most viewed article in the high impact journal of Energy Sources Part A .
Full report – https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15567036.2020.1831108?src=
