Birmingham commuters will work from shared offices located in the city’s suburbs in the future under plans being drawn up to tackle climate change.

The radical measure will see employers working side by side with staff from other firms at specially equipped out-of-city centre work hubs in a bid to cut down on carbon emissions caused by travel.

Regional development agency Advantage West Midlands is to meet some of the city’s biggest employers to urge them to outsource their workforce to the so-called “tele-hubs”.

Company bosses will also to be encouraged to offer “seasonal working hours”, where staff can work longer during the summer when it is lighter and shorter during the dark winter months to cut down on congestion.

The measures are a response to a growing awareness that the region is not doing enough to meet targets on reducing carbon emissions.

Speaking at a meeting of the Churches Industrial Group Birmingham, AWM’s head of sustainable development Dr Simon Slater said fundamental changes in the way people worked had to be made.

“If we can convince people’s HR departments to work more flexibly there is a huge gain in productivity and a huge reduction in carbon,” he said.
Measures such as car sharing and congestion charging are already being looked at, he said, but businesses had to go a step further and move away from traditional centralised ways of working.

“The idea of the work centres is for people to drive a little way rather than a long way. The concept of everyone working from home isn’t going to work because you need to get out and meet people.

“The tele-hubs will be centres where they can plug in their laptop and hold meetings. We are at the early stages of developing this in the West Midlands.

“But we are going to be working with some big employers to look at moving away from big buildings and having staff working at home or getting these tele-hubs set up.”

Dr Slater, who has previously worked as an adviser on sustainability to former Green Party leader Jonathan Porritt and ex-London Mayor Ken Livingstone, added: We have identified this as one of the projects we are keen to work on. Some of the biggest barriers to this happening is HR and senior managers adapting to new ways of managing their staff.”

Dr Slater said preliminary meetings had already taken place with employers’ lobby group the CBI and TravelWise, a network of organisations promoting sustainable travel.

Concerns over issues of security arising from people employed by different companies sharing an office could be overcome, said Dr Slater. He said businesses would also be urged to offer flexible work time depending on the time of year and hours of sunlight to reduce the amount of traffic on roads.

Birmingham has set a target of reducing carbon dioxide emissions in Birmingham by 60 per cent by 2050.

Professor Peter Braithwaite, a director at global engineering consultants Arup and world expert on sustainability, warned: “I am afraid that other parts of the country are taking quicker action.

“As a nation we have rested on our laurels and refused to see that we need to make big changes. Some of it will hurt. But the whole work dynamic has got to change.”

The Birmingham Chamber of Commerce supported moves to cut travel but its communications director John Lamb added: “Businesses already pay a fairly high price and is expected to pay a higher price to reduce carbon emissions. If this is going to be workable there has to be financial help to do it.”