Businesses should shift working hours from the traditional 9-5 to a 6am-2pm system, which would avoid employees switching on air conditioning, claims a new study from the University of Oxford.
Scientists are pushing for a similar working routine to Spain, which makes changes to working hours in the summer months instead of creating a “vicious cycle” and taking the “easier option” with people working in offices switching on air conditioning and therefore using more energy.
The UK, alongside Switzerland and Norway, is “traditionally unprepared for heat” says the report, because buildings have been designed to insulate. These countries must prepare for the “largest relative cooling demand surges,” says author Dr. Jesus Lizana.
Lizana argues: “It is quite common for outdoor workers in July and August (e.g. builders, agricultural workers) to shift to an early starting hour – like from 6 am to 2 pm – to avoid working during the hottest hours of the day.”
Switching working hours would represent one of many “immediate and unprecedented climate adaptation interventions [that] are required worldwide to be prepared for a hotter world,” the scientists conclude.
This is the latest recommended extreme measure to mitigate hot weather, such as the World Economic Forum’s demands to reduce car ownership by 75 percent by 2050 and the French government’s decision to ban short-haul flights.
