Telework for a Sustainable Future: Systematic Review of Its Contribution to Global Corporate Sustainability (2020-2024)

The COVID-19 crisis has turned teleworking from a minority option into an imposed and generalized way of life and has called into question its contribution to corporate sustainability. The present review is the first systematic review of the effects of telework on the environmental, social, and economic pillars of corporate sustainability in scholarly literature published from 2020 to 2024. And a total of 50 studies from three databases (Scopus, Science Direct and Taylor and Francis) were reviewed according to PRISMA guideline by both the data bibliometric analysis and narrative synthesis. Findings show that telework has the potential to improve environmental sustainability by decreasing commuting emissions (29%-54% depending on its deployment intensity), but rebound effects such as increased residential energy use work against this (in part) positive regard. From a social point of view, telework is double-edged, between helping balance personal and work life and possessing the potential to lead to greater isolation and aggravate existing inequalities, particularly in developing countries. Economically, it drives operational costs down and expands the talent pool, impacting micro, meso and macroeconomically. The possibility of telework as a tool of sustainable development is substantially moderated by organizational culture, digital infrastructure, sociodemographic reality and even the physical environment. We argue that telework is a potentially transformative driver of corporate sustainability, if deployed strategically within a given context; however, disciplinary fragmentation and methodological lacunae in common metrics remain, especially with regard to long-term effects and implementation in developing economies.