Just getting to and from the workplace generates a lot of carbon emission. Millions of commuters spend hours every day on roads, spewing immense amounts of exhaust into the atmosphere. Additional there are a lot of business trips, whether it is for a one hour discussion or a week-long conference. All this traffic is responsible for a huge amount of emissions and is also expensive.
The following chart shows us the total costs of business trips German enterprises spent between 2004 and 2008:
Especially short trips offer a significant potential for saving emissions and costs by using telecommunication solutions that enable remote collaboration. This does not only apply to large businesses, because there are also high-quality systems available for small and medium-sized companies. New videoconferencing systems enable realistic face-to-face communication, permitting virtual meetings that are as effective as real ones. Technical innovations led to a broad acceptance and let people collaborate in virtually any situation, independently of their geographical location.
There are some different tools available. The most powerful tool is the so called “Telepresence”. It displays participants on life-size screens that make them seem to be actually present in the room. These tools can effectively replace many business trips. Moreover with these solutions also employees could work at home, this saves not only time and office space, but most importantly, eliminates the need to commute.
