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I have worked from home for almost 6 years now, and I wondered today how the carbon footprint of my previous commute compares to a trans-Atlantic flight. (Maybe I would like to attend a conference or hackathon in the USA.) Here's a back-of-an-envelope calculation.

According to Google Maps, the distance from my home to my previous 2 offices by bike is about 8.4 miles, or 13.5km. Eyeballing the tube route I think it's about the same; let's round this up to 14km, or 28km daily round trip.

There are normally 227 working days in a year.

According to this 2020 Freedom of Information request to TFL, in 2018/19, the average normalised carbon emissions from London Underground were 44 gCO2e per passenger km.

44 gCO2e/km × 28 km × 227 days per year × 6 years = 1 677 984 gCO2e.

According to a flight emissions calculator I found in a quick web search, a one-way journey by aeroplane for a single passenger in Economy from London to New York emits 809 600 gCO2e, so a return journey is 1 619 200 gCO2e: almost exactly the same as six years of not commuting.