Utah just became the first state to close government offices on Friday, and go to a four day work week beginning August 1. The Office of the Governor estimates that 1,000 of 3,000 state buildings will be closed on Fridays, cutting energy costs by about 20 percent. Minnesota is also considering such a move. You can read the Press Release yourself, and they also have an excel spreadsheet with more data on the energy savings from this move.Utah used six representative office buildings in its spreadsheet to detail the savings involved:1) The annual energy savings for the state would be $123,220, or 13,653 MBtu.2) The annual fuel reduction for employees would be 76,840 gallons of gasoline, or $312,971.While these savings don't seem like much, they are based on only six buildings, while 1,000 buildings will be closed. My other thoughts on this:The employee savings must assume that employees use less gasoline on the new day off than they would in commuting to work.
