Video conferences grow into ‘green’ scene

Ask Dave Komaromi, technical services manager at Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP in Toronto, why his company distributes desktop video conferencing systems among its lawyers, and he'll talk about productivity improvements and decreased travel costs. But he'll also mention a less common yet increasingly important impetus: the need for green. We're not talking money here; we're talking environmental friendliness.According to Komaromi, some businesses are starting to tune in to the need for environmental sustainability - not necessarily because it makes companies feel good about themselves, but because it makes them look good to others."Organizations that use technology to not only improve productivity but also reduce emissions will be able to claim environmental friendliness," Komaromi says, indicating a potential public relations boon.He's not the only one saying green is the new black in IT. Business consultants at Deloitte have identified 2007 as the year IT goes green. "As environmental concerns increase, tech companies will likely need to build a case for technology's positive contribution to the global environment by designing products and services that are environmentally friendly," reads a January press release.One IT provider already making green-smart claims is Cisco Systems Inc., which wants to reduce its "carbon footprint" - the amount of carbon dioxide it produces - by 10%. The company plans to use video conferencing to help reach that goal.A No-BrainerVideo conferencing seems a no-brainer in corporations' desire to collect environmental brownie points. The greening of IT was a topic of discussion when Cisco unveiled the TelePresence high-definition video conferencing system in Toronto last year. The platform can cost more than $350,000, but video conferencing systems as inexpensive as $2,000 can also make a difference in the amount of greenhouse gases a company emits - reduced car, plane and train travel spells reduced exhaust from internal combustion engines.According to the Sightline Institute, a Seattle environmental think tank, each passenger on a plane is responsible for .97 pounds of carbon dioxide per mile traveled. A businessperson flying from Toronto to San Jose CA (2,346 miles) would create 2,276 pounds of carbon dioxide. By some estimates the aviation industry is responsible for 600 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.Offset the environmental impact with a video conferencing session instead and your business may well find itself green by technology. But consider the dollar costs as well: for a given Tuesday departure, it would cost $797 for a return flight from Toronto to San Jose on Air Canada. Make the trip every month and you'll spend nearly $10,000 - just about the amount you'd spend on desktop video conferencing software from Polycom Inc. for 100 software licences.Polycom crunched some numbers in a white paper titled How to Justify IP Video Conferencing. Borrowing baseline metrics from a Worldcom study, Polycom said the average business trip costs US$1,334 dollars, and the average business traveler makes 4.6 trips per month. Over a year those journeys would cost US$73,632. If a company divided the cost of one Hewlett-Packard Co. Halo Collaboration Studio (US$399,000) between five employees, it would reach top-line cost justification for the high-definition video conferencing system in no time.Whole CostTelecom service providers are getting in on the video conferencing act too. SaskTel boasts that its employees conducted more than 400 internal tele- and video conference calls in 2006. "Besides saving money and time, video conferencing saved 48 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, nonrenewable fuel was conserved and parking facilities were not required," writes Tom Myers, SaskTel's environment director, in an email response to Telemanagement's questions.Bell Canada also relies on video conferencing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Marc Duchesne, director, corporate responsibility and environment, points to the telco's participation in the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), an organization that aims to change the way people think of information and communication technologies."We're more a part of the solution than part of the problem. We do consume energy for our fleet, our network and our buildings. But the potential benefit from expanded use of our products and services is 10 times greater than what we emit from our operations."But video conferencing systems are not absolutely benign. They consume energy and contribute to the greenhouse gas effect in their production, distribution and use. Still, businesses can mitigate the worst of it by ensuring the equipment is recycled at the end of its useful life. Most network equipment manufacturers manage their products by ensuring old equipment goes to qualified recycling facilities, such as Noranda Recycling in Brampton ON and Genesis Recycling Corp. in Aldergrove BC.Just the tip of a melting iceberg...This article represents a small part of the research Telemanagement has undertaken for a new report, Green Connectivity: Environmental Sustainability for Network Professionals. It's an in-depth look at technologies and best practices for ecologically friendly enterprise communications, and it will be ready soon. To find out more, contact Ryan O'Neill (roneill@decima.com) or Stefan Dubowski (sdubowski@decima.com).

Video conferences grow into ‘green’ scene

News | April 2, 2007

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