Staff at global IT firm Cisco “telecommute” twice a week to help the company with “aggressive” targets to trim its carbon footprint.

The futuristic-sounding work habit was revealed by Cisco’s UK and Ireland technology boss to co-incide with a new report advising firms to consider “homeworking” as a green tactic.

Telecommuting is when people don’t work in offices but at home or somewhere close to home.

Ian Foddering, Chief Technology Officer Technical Director said: “The average Cisco employee telecommutes 2 days a week and those using our Cisco Virtual Office technology typically work from home 3 days each week.”

This tots up to avoiding 35 million miles of commuting per year, he said: “Not only is this great for the environment, reducing Cisco’s CO2 emissions by 17,000 tonnes annually but it’s also great for business, with an estimated $333 million per year made in productivity savings.”

By 2018, there will be over 10 billion mobile-connected devices globally, added Mr Foddering. He suggested telecommuting will become “commonplace”.

• carbon emissions, Cisco, homeworking, telecommuting