National Work from Home Day - Thursday 15th May

This Thursday (May 15) is National Work from Home Day when up to five million workers are expected to work from home across the UK.

The environmental benefits of working from home more regularly can be considerable as you reduce your commuting emissions with each day you do from home. Read more about the green benefits of working from home by clicking here.

Nearly 3.5 million people already work from home in the UK - 12.2 per cent or one-in-eight of the population - an increase of 600,000 since 1997.

The highest proportion of home workers is in the South West with 15.7 per cent, followed by Eastern England with 14.4 per cent. The lowest is in the North East with 9.3 per cent, followed by Scotland with 9.4 per cent.

National Work from Home Day kicks off the start of Work Wise Week, a series of events from Work Wise UK, a not-for-profit organisation which encourages UK businesses to adopt smarter working practices with the aim of turning the country into one of the most progressive economies in the world.

Phil Flaxton, chief executive of Work Wise UK, is keen to extoll the many positives of working from home. Phil said: "Not only does it reduce the amount of commuting people have to do, enhancing their work-life balance, but many are actually more productive.

"Although many organisations practise the age-old philosophy of 'presenteeism', they should open their eyes to the new work ethic spreading across the UK and try out home working: they may well be surprised."

Home working is one of the smarter working practises being promoted through the Work Wise UK campaign, which is entering its third year. Others include flexible working, including condensed hours and nine-day fortnights, mobile and remote working. Work Wise partners include the TUC, CBI, British Chambers of Commerce, BT and Transport for London. It aims to encourage half the working population, some 14 million people, to be offered smarter working by 2011.

Find out more about National Work from Home Day and Work Wise Week at http://www.workwiseuk.org/.

For more tips and ideas for ways to go green in the workplace, visit http://www.biggreenswitch.co.uk/workplace?ito=1714&itc=0.