Peak Oil Task Force Report - City of Bloomington - State of Indiana

esidents who work from home, however, this group declined by 6%. Meanwhile, the
portion of workers with commutes between 20 to 44 minutes increased by 10%. 113
The City should seriously examine a telecommuting policy wherein employees are
encouraged to work from home once a week, if appropriate to their duties. A number of
municipalities have already implemented such policies. 114 Not only does such a policy
reduce the City’s reliance on petroleum to get employees to work, but it also decreases the
City’s electricity consumption and reduces greenhouse gas emissions while improving
employee morale and retention. 115
10. The City should explore a four­day work week.
Both the City’s Sanitation Division and the Monroe County Highway Department have
moved to four‐day work weeks in an effort to save fuel. The City should identify positions
for which such a configuration might make sense. If paired with some form of
telecommuting, this promises to substantially reduce employee drive time.
11. Seek assistance with park maintenance from volunteers, neighborhood
associations, etc.
This would reduce the number of vehicles travelling to parks to mow and maintain
facilities. The City might begin such an initiative with a few Adopt­a­Park trial runs to
assess how such volunteer provisioning would best work.
113 2000 US Census.
114 Examples include San Francisco, San Diego, Portland, OR; Atlanta; Virginia Beach, VA; and Denver, CO.
Indeed, US cities have experienced high growth in rates of telecommuting to work from 2006 to 2007, most likely a
direct impact from rising fuel prices. Oakland had the highest telecommuting rate, at 7.6% in 2007, while six US
cities—San Francisco, San Diego, Portland, OR; Atlanta; Virginia Beach and Denver‐‐had more than 5% of their total
workforce being primarily home based. Karlenzig, Major US City Post­Oil Preparedness Ranking Which Cities and
Metro Areas are Best or Least Prepared for Price Volatility, Supply Shocks and Climate Change Regulations?
http://www.commoncurrent.com/pubs/MajorUSCityPost‐OilPreparednessRanking.pdf
115 Ravi S. Gajendran and Harrison, David A, “The Good, the Bad, and the Unknown about Telecommuting:
Meta‐analysis of Psychological Mediators and Individual Consequences,” Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(6)
(November 2007): 1524‐1541.
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