Are bank holidays good for the planet? We ask an expert

With the exception of Scotland, this Monday is the UK’s last bank holiday before Christmas. The UK gets eight days a year in comparison with the EU average of 12.8. But, beyond opportunities to relax, what do they mean for the planet? I spoke to Dénes Csala, who found that each bank holiday saves 100,000 tonnes of carbon.

Your findings surprised me, especially when the bank holidays are such a popular time to fly abroad.Some are, though some are also family events, so people stay home. And when we looked at all the bank holidays, we found energy consumption dropped by about 10% overall, probably because the commute vanished.

How did you get to 10%?We used statistics published by Entsoe-E – the EU’s energy watchdog. But what’s striking is, even though energy consumption drops by about 10%, we calculated that emissions could drop by up to 22%-25%. We use cleaner energy sources first, such as nuclear power. As we require more energy, we start to tap into other sources, like wind turbines. It’s only when we’re at peak energy usage that we start to use the sources with the highest emissions – such as natural gas. Plus there are big differences between summer and winter. In summer, we consume less.

So from an emissions perspective, we’d be better off having more bank holidays in the winter?The numbers would suggest that.

Winter is for hibernation! I know it, you know it, the bears know it. You mentioned the impact of commuting – does that mean hybrid working is good for the planet, too?I don’t think enough time has passed to make that judgment. From an energy consumption perspective, there may be a drop, but there are other considerations, such as how office buildings may be more efficient than houses.

Are there energy-mindful things hybrid teams could be doing?Working in different slots to reduce peaks from commuting: so some people work from 8am to 4pm, others 9am to 5pm, and 10am to 6pm.

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How funny, I was just reading an article about circadian rhythms. Apparently we’re all on different body clocks and are most productive at different times of the day, so it’s quite mad that we’re forced to live on the same timetable.I think personalising the work week would have many gains. Take this idea of the four-day week: a three-day weekend sounds alluring but the best way might not actually be having Friday off for everyone, but an extra day off at different times. But it is a false dream to think a four-day work week will suddenly halve emissions. In Utah, a four-day week trial reduced energy use by 13%, but it was abandoned – the state government didn’t think it was worth it.

As work dreams go, I like the utopia where machines do the drudgery so human work is only the fulfilling stuff – inventing and creating. Mind you, I’m not sure how energy-efficient those machines would be.That’s interesting – if we replaced human workers with robots, which would be more energy-efficient? You’d think the robots – but then you think about the energy that goes into manufacturing a product somewhere in Asia and putting it on a ship and, well, I’m not so sure.