Conferencing Promotes a Green Workplace

By Stefania Viscusi

TMCnet Assistant Editor

 

The benefits brought  to the office environment via the ability to utilize IP for conferencing with colleagues, customers and partners are many. Chief among these is the reduced need to travel.

 

By saving on travel, not only are companies saving money and enhancing productivity, but also the environment is being saved by reduced emissions and other environmental hazards associated with the need to travel.

 

Now, more than ever as our earth begins to show the affects of global warming and other harms done on to it over the years, it is important for all to take responsibility.

 

Many offices today offer green workplace policies to aid in reducing their impact on the environment including, improved recycling, better conservation of energy and fossil fuel among other tactics.

 

Conferencing provides the ability to conduct meetings virtually so there is less a need to travel as well as less carbon dioxide emissions for the earth.

 

In order to examine the green workplace in more depth and in honor of Earth Day 2007, Genesys (News - Alert), a provider of global multi-media collaboration services, surveyed over 18,000 of its global customers on the topic.

 

The survey found that most companies did have green programs in place.

 

Also, eighty-eight percent said that car and air travel to meetings not only had the "largest negative impact on the environment - far larger than paper and plastic goods used in the course of physical meetings" but also that it is the area most in our control to fix.  Of the respondents, sixty-five percent also noted that using web collaboration for virtual meetings would help solve this problem and make a significant positive impact on the environment.

Denise Persson, Executive Vice President Marketing, Genesys commented, "A decade ago, the requirement for extensive travel was seen as something of a status symbol. We're now quickly reaching the point where meeting travel is becoming politically incorrect, and virtual meetings are emerging as having the greatest 'cool factor.' That's good for everyone. It saves a lot of wear and tear on the environment. It also saves a lot of wear and tear on the person."