County employees can work in their PJs 

Beginning next month, some SLO County employees won’t have to get dressed to go to work.

County supervisors unanimously approved a telecommuting policy and alternative work schedule designed to curb the No. 1 source of county government pollution: commuting to and from work. According to a county staff report, employee commutes account for 67 percent of the county’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Last November, supervisors started the process to develop a telecommuting program and new work schedule that would allow employees to work longer hours each day and avoid commuting for one day every other week. County staffers crafted the new work schedule and laid the groundwork for the telecommuting proposal, which supervisors approved without discussion on April 20.

Setting up the infrastructure to allow employees to remotely patch into the county’s network could hit as high as $50,000, according to the staff report, but would be covered by the Countywide Automation Fund.

All municipalities must reduce greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050, under AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.