Maybe this is another area where government needs to step in and mandate all employers over a certain size allow work-from-home with no pay consequences.
Probably not, since it seems to encourage suburban and rural sprawl?
There's commutes to factor in too, true, but I don't know if that's enough.
> especially in the big cities like SF and Seattle?
Big cities are good for the environment precisely because they keep large numbers of humans within a small area. Imagine if NYC's population suddenly spread out to all live in detached single family homes on large lots. The environmental devastation would be enormous.
In any case, commutes don't have to be that bad for environment. Electrically-powered public transit, or biking, have a marginal per-person impact on the environment, relative to the US standard of a person driving themselves a long distance in their gas car, alone.