Carbon data analytics company Watershed announced the launch of a free calculator aimed at enabling companies to assess the climate impact of their workforce.

The company stated that it is releasing the new tool as companies are beginning planning to bring people back into offices in the coming months in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, offering a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rethink the carbon impact of the workplace.

The new tool aims to give them data to make real-time businesses decisions that consider the carbon impact.

According to Watershed, the new tool allows companies to build a baseline assessment and a forecast for the emissions impact of factors including the number of in-office days per week, where employees live and how they commute, the size of company offices, corporate travel, and whether or not companies buy clean power for offices or employee homes.

Watershed stated that it has been working with customers like Shopify, which announced a Digital by Default policy for the whole company back in May last year, and the tool reflects some of work done with them over the past year.

Taylor Francis, Co-Founder, Watershed, said:

“Many companies have taken bold steps toward remote work or hybrid work models since Covid thrust us all into new ways of working a year ago. Now, as companies consider bringing people back into offices, there’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity to hit an important “reset” button on the environmental impact of work. Based on our work with companies like Shopify, we’ve built this tool to give more companies and sustainability professionals a starting point for evaluating the carbon impact of decisions to re-open offices, enable permanent work from home, or a mix of both.”