Nortel Goes Green with Teleworking

Nortel (NT) has gone hog-wild over being green.

First, it made a splash touting how its telecom gear is more energy efficient than Cisco’s (CSCO). Now, it’s enthusiastically promoting the benefits of teleworking - the idea you that can work from home to save time and, of course, energy.

In theory, teleworking/telecommuting makes a lot of sense. It’s a win for employees who can work without the aggravation of commuting, while employers can save on office space, energy consumption, etc.

In practice, it hasn’t been embraced that enthusiastically due to concerns about issues such as productivity. AT&T (T), for example, announced last year that was bringing thousands of full-time telecommuting employees back to the office.

Still, Nortel is keen on the concept. In fact, it says 10% of its employees work from home on a full-time basis while 80% of equipped to work from home. Nortel claims the benefits of telecommuting are:

• Employees who work from home one day a week save an estimated US $500 a year on fuel costs.
• An estimated 15% increase in productivity among teleworkers, with 94% of them reporting 15% to 20% greater productivity.
• An 11% increase in satisfaction among teleworkers compared to the overall employee population.
• Annual real estate savings of about US $9,000 per full-time teleworker.
• Savings of approximately US $22 million per year in real estate costs and associated energy usage.
• 18% of employees chose “Flexibility” as the #1 reason they like Nortel.