A congressman, former governor and CEO took part in a Web conference held last week to champion teleworking as a means to reduce fossil fuels dependencies, provide business continuity and ease the burden on our transportation infrastructure.

Scott Fleming, founder and CEO of Teletrips, hosted the event. He emphasized that teleworking doesn't require a full-time commitment to be effective. "The impact of having millions of people not all driving or using transit to and from work at the same time, or staying at home a day or two per week is enormous," he said.

Using the software Teletrips developed for auditing trip reduction programs, Fleming calculated the savings attendees racked up just by logging in to a virtual event rather than traveling to a hotel in Washington, D.C. With 25% of attendees reporting the distance they would have had to drive to get to the hotel, he estimated savings of about 2,500 gallons of gas, $7,800 in operating costs and $1,300 in parking.

Christine Todd Whitman, president of management consulting firm Whitman Strategy Group, talked about the impact the 40 million people who telework nationwide are already making: "Every day across America, telecommuters save about $120 million in gas costs and prevent the emission of 1.76 billion pounds of carbon dioxide. That's each and every single day."

But there's much more that can be done, said Whitman, former New Jersey governor and EPA administrator. The benefits of telework extend beyond the environment, she said. Whitman cited news that the New Jersey Transit public transportation corporation plans to spend $425 million buying 231 train cars to reduce congestion on commuter lines. The purchase will increase capacity by about 6,200 seats. If instead the state could add that many people to the telecommuting ranks, the $425 million purchase wouldn't be necessary.

"Not only could that save millions of dollars in capital expenditures, it would also reduce operating costs by millions of dollars," Whitman said. "And those savings would reduce the need for increases in transportation taxes and could also mean fewer fare hikes, which is music to everyone's ears."

In addition, teleworking can decrease our nation's dependence on foreign oil, Whitman said: "Each day Americans use 733 million gallons of gas to travel 11 billion miles… Even a modest gain in telecommuting can produce enormous savings."