Green Computing: Part 2

In the second part of our series looking at the environmental impact of business computing, IT PRO looks at the role videoconferencing and unified communications can play in cutting the carbon footprint of your business.

By Gary Flood, 17 Jan 2007 at 16:10

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So it may well be the case that these players are right - that organisations keen to rack up some more CSR points will start looking at more support for remote meeting as a way to demonstrate green credentials. In FTSE credibility terms this may have already started - BT is well known for its strong support for remote meetings and home working: June 2005 research from the telco suggests the average physical meet costs at least £435 in terms of travel and accommodation costs, for instance.

But of course in practice getting people to give up all that airline food and oadside cuisine may be more complicated.

Microsoft supplies an interesting perspective on this. Of course, the software giant is a strong player in this market with its LiveMeeting product.

"We surveyed our staff last year and found the average person in Microsoft who needs to go and visit customers, say, is doing about 338 hours a year travelling to meetings. That's the equivalent of 16 full days work," says Mark Deakin, the company's local Unified Communications Product Manager. He has calculated that's also easily more than a couple of round the world trips in mileage terms - especially as the software giant has some 2,000 staff working either remotely already or out of its Reading base.

This is bad not just for the individuals concerned in terms of stress from that travel but also of course in environmental terms. There is also the work-life balance aspect, he adds. In any case, "We estimated that at least one in four of all those meetings could be done just as well over the Internet," he says.

Having said that, Deakin is a realist. "There are some people who do really like a face to face meeting," he knows. But why not use technology like Web cameras and the like that at least puts people's faces and expressions in the same room without the need to be able to smell their aftershave too?

Thus the company is heavily promoting use of LiveMeeting and its Office RoundTable web conferencing products to staff to encourage take up. "The campaign centres on two main messages: that doing the meetings you can this way cuts down on CO2 emissions and that on a personal note you don't have to travel four hours any more for a thirty minute meeting."

But "this is an ongoing process" and the firm is not expecting dramatic behavioural changes overnight. "At the least we can say we have put this option back in people's minds here and are signalling we do support this kind of way of working," he concludes.