Environment

A single flight from Amsterdam to London generates carbon emissions of around 136 Kg. A video meeting generates 7 grams. 

Governments, businesses and consumers alike are increasingly aware of the importance of protecting the environment and companies across the world are taking on the challenge of reducing their environmental impact as Corporate Social Responsibility and government regulations move business towards being more environmentally conscious. In most countries companies are expected to strive towards a greener corporate strategy and take specific actions to incorporate environmental goals. One of the biggest concerns for companies when it comes to environmental impact is carbon emissions.  Cutting back on travel is one measureable way to a help reduce carbon emissions. Video conferencing can help reduce business travel and support remote / home working initiatives. A study conducted by WWF1 estimates that if you replace 20% of the business travel within the EU with video conferencing, carbon emissions would be reduced by more than 22 million tons each year. The study also shows that if half of all the employees within the EU replaced a single meeting with a video conference, this would save 2.13 million tonnes a year.

To be able to maximize the ROI of video conferencing it’s important to get the message spread across the complete value chain, from employees to customers and suppliers. A published Cisco report2 claims if companies in the United States and United Kingdom with more than $1 billion in revenues implement strong Video Conferencing programs, they can generate nearly $19 billion in economy-wide financial benefits by 2020 and avoid nearly 5.5 million metric tons of emissions.

Source:

• WWF¹ - Saving the climate @ the speed of light - First roadmap for reduced CO2 emissions in the EU and beyond
• Cisco report² - Increase the Return on a Telepresence Investment