Businesses and individuals across the globe are becoming more aware
of their carbon footprint than ever before. We have all learnt to switch
off lights in empty rooms and turn off the tap while brushing our teeth
but the expectancy on us to do more to stop global climate change is
increasing.
It can be hard to see what more you can do if you are already very
conscious about your carbon footprint but perhaps your work or business
life has not had as much scrutiny as your home life.
With all the great advancements in technology surely there are
alternatives that many businesses may have overlooked. Here are a few of
our suggestions:
Cut your travel with VoIP
How often do you
travel across town for a ten to thirty minute meeting? Cut the cost of
travel and the price to the environment by exploring the benefits of
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). Call conferencing features enable
you to hold meetings over several sites on one phone system – saving
time, money and emissions.
If you would like to enhance your meeting then you can use services like GoToMeeting
where you can share your screen, and therefore PDFs, spreadsheets,
presentations, video etc with all the meeting participants. It will add
extra interaction to your meeting and help add the visual element
conference calls lack.
By holding meetings online you can easily work from home meaning you
don’t have to drive to work or drive around all day to get to meetings.
Cutting transport emissions is key to the Government’s ‘Low Carbon
Transition Plan’. It’s not just great for your company’s green image,
but also your budget.
Why run two offices?
Think about all the things
that are needed to run an office. Electricity for your computers, phone
system, servers, lighting, air-conditioning etc. And then there’s the
gas for your heating systems and your staff facilities. Why not
seriously cut costs and do your bit for the environment by encouraging
your staff to work from home.
Not only will you cut emissions from reducing travel to an office but
you’ll also be using almost the same amount of energy that is used to
heat and light your home anyway.
If you are concerned about accessing your files and you still have an
‘office machine’ then you can remotely log into your work computer by
installing free programme LogMeIn or ask your IT consultant about remotely accessing your server.
Accessing files wherever you need them also reduces the amount of
hard copies you have to make, saving paper, ink and energy on printing
those long documents – which are usually only read over once or twice
before being discarded.
There are also other hidden benefits to working from home such as
reduced stress, increased productivity and no train delays or traffic
jams.
Gradwell is keen to assist their customers to reduce their carbon
footprint. One such client ‘Sustain IT’ has already adopted this as part
of their corporate culture and reducing their carbon footprint is seen
as a vital part of their company policy, with VoIP being the centre and
catalyst for this.
“Initially we had not thought of our carbon footprint. However we now
consider it to be a vital part of our Company Policy. Internet
Telephony helps us to reduce our employee travel and therefore reduce
the impact on the environment that commuting is having. So anything we
can do as an employer to encourage our staff to use home working or
increase the use of the public transport network and cycling has to be
good for the future of our children and the planet.”
Everyone making a small change will make a big difference to the planet – and it can benefit your business too.
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