Green Conferencing Solutions

Making Meetings Green

With the growing attention to global warming, the pressure is on businesses to be environmentally conscious; but business travel is a significant contributor to pollution.

• A single transatlantic flight from London to New York creates an average 1.2 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
• A gas-fueled car traveling 500 miles per week creates an average 9 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year and commuting 350 miles by train every week creates an average of 1.2 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year.

All of this adds up to the nearly 6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emitted by human activity per year in industrialized nations like the U.S. This pollution in the atmosphere traps some of the sun's energy that reaches the earth, preventing it from escaping back into space, and thereby warming the earth's climate.

So how can we cut emissions to help the environment without sacrificing productivity? Collaboration and conferencing services enable employees to work from anywhere, and stay connected to co-workers, customers, vendors and partners who are critical to business. Give a presentation, review documents or demonstrate software, just as during an in-person meeting, without getting in a car or flying on a plane. The effects on the environment could be huge too.

Can you really save a fortune while saving the planet? It's not as difficult as you might think. Using collaboration services like those provided by InterCall makes it easy.

Save the Planet

Conventional ways of doing business can be tough on the environment. Fuel consumption, traffic congestion, and carbon dioxide emissions tax the environment (and in some cases, our patience).

• A recent survey of telecommuters found they drive 5 million fewer miles, generate 165,000 fewer pounds of air pollution and endure 170,000 fewer hours of stressful driving time per year.
• Whether a flight is on-time or delayed, each trip you take dumps an estimated 1,600 pounds of carbon dioxide into the not-so friendly skies. That's a heavy carbon footprint.

Save Money

No surprise, but conferencing is much less expensive than traveling. Companies like Tokyo Electron are able to reduce travel budgets by 20 percent, resulting in major cost savings.

InterCall's travel calculator gives you an estimate of how much money you'll save by conferencing. You'll be shocked, and pleasantly surprised to learn the facts.

Save Your Time

Why travel if conferencing lets you be in two places at once? Improve your work/life balance by spending more time at home, and less of it on the road. Many users of web conferencing promote productivity at the office can enable employees to spend an extra 5 hours per day at their desks rather than traveling. InterCall gives you all the tools to get the job done with audio, video, or web conferencing. And thanks to reservationless technology, you can start a meeting at a moment's notice.

However, the case for conferencing isn't all about saving money or new technologies. It's about building business through better communications. Conferencing can help you take your communications to another level.

All you need is a phone, an Internet connection, and a computer. It's an easy step to help your company become just a little greener... and we mean that in a good way!