The Digital Carbon footprint associated to the way of working in an organization

Sammanfattning: This report aims to investigate the digital carbon footprint connected to the ways of working in an organization, more specifically at KTH, the Royal Technical Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. The report gives an insight into the habits of the employees at KTH and their regular work day in different work setups; working remotely from home or at the office. The Covid-19 pandemic fuelled a shift in flexibility regarding where and how we work, and rapid digitalization of communication and tasks were necessary in order to keep business going as usual when restrictions were implemented in Sweden in 2020. Many of these then remained and were expanded further in order to prevent the virus from spreading. This has made an impact on the digital habits of workers globally and thereby also their digital footprint. This aspect of emissions connected to this shift in digitalization is therefore interesting to investigate. In this report a survey has been carried out, together with a thorough literature study, to get a deeper knowledge and understanding of the CO2 emissions connected to the actions and tasks needed to complete a regular workday, from home or at the office. The main focus is the environmental aspect of the issue but, for nuance, the social and economical aspects of the different set ups of working were also researched, discussed and taken in consideration. Results obtained show an overwhelming preference of working in hybrid format, with over 80% preferring this format. The difference between the carbon footprint of working remotely and at the office was observed to be rather small, with a difference of only between 5%-10%. And lastly, the observed results were impacted significantly by the fact that Swedish energy comes from overall clean sources meaning the most impactful factors were those affecting energy consumption located abroad.