The motoring press and government seem to be obsessed with the pursuit of more energy efficient cars and more energy efficient homes etc and are even encouraging us to buy an electric car, a 'plug in hybrid' car, or to install 16 huge solar panels on our roof tops, by offering huge financial subsidies and 'feed in tariffs' etc. Conversely ,we are 'warned' that huge future investment is required in such things as new nuclear power stations and 'renewable or eco energy' sources such as wind farms, solar farms and the like - all necessary to sustain our luxuries and 'energy rich' life styles.

There are alternatives to all this madness that require no new technological break throughs and probably only modest initial investment.

I am of course talking about moving our normal place of work to a local tele-commuting centre with office space, computer terminals and the like rented or leased by the employer by the month, quarter or year. Most of those with office jobs can do this for at least 4 of the 5 days per week - if only employers would 'trust them' not to 'skive off', unsupervised, and even those engaged in manufacturing industry could benefit from localised, purpose built, manufacturing centres for light goods, with high resilience data comms links to the more centralised heavy plant and machinery required for fabrication of larger items such as motor cars, railway rolling stock and airframes etc. This already applies to many manufacturers where all the feasibility studies, prototyping, design, research and development {R&D} is done in the UK whilst manufacturing is done elsewhere in a 'low labour cost' Central European or Far Eastern part of the world.

Additional benefits are obvious such as less time 'wasted' commuting by road, rail or air to 'the corporate office'. Staff working at a local tele-commuting centre may choose to walk, bus, or cycle or even 'motor cycle or scoot' to work, as suits their particular circumstances. The cumulative reduction in wasted personal time, stress, anxiety, fossil fuels, energy and high cost centralised offices with sky high business rates would be significant - IT JUST NEEDS SOME FORWARD THINKING EMPLOYERS TO START THE BALL ROLLING :-)

What does the Honest John Community Think of this ?

Edited by Firmbutfair on 07/07/2014 at 19:49