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6/17/2010

Telepresence Reduces Emissions While Providing Financial Benefits

A study by the Carbon Disclosure Project finds that travel substitution through video communications technology could reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 15% by 2020, while saving $19 billion.

SocialFunds.com -- %147Work is an activity, not a place,%148 says CEO Randall Stephenson of AT&T, the company that sponsored a recent study commissioned by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) of the financial and environmental benefits of business travel substitution through video communications, or telepresence. The study was produced by Verdantix , a research firm that advises corporations on climate change and sustainability initiatives.

In his foreword to the study, Paul Dickinson, the CEO of the CDP, wrote, %147It is vital that government and industry throughout the world accept this historic challenge to proliferate a credible alternative to business travel as quickly as possible.%148

Furthermore, Dickinson continued, the study %147proves that responding to climate change issues will%133fuel the engine of growth.%148

The study, entitled The Telepresence Revolution , uses interviews with executives of 15 Global 500 firms that were early adopters to project the financial benefits and emissions reductions of telepresence for companies with $1 billion or more in annual revenue. The CDP study builds upon a 2008 SMART 2020 report , which found that Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) solutions could reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 15% by 2020.

According to the CDP study, %147US and UK businesses with annual revenues of more than $1 billion can cut nearly 5.5 million metric tons of CO2 emissions by 2020 as a result of deploying a total of almost 10,000 telepresence units.%148

%147These reductions,%148 the study continued, %147Are equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions from over one million passenger vehicles.%148

The financial benefits to those companies would be significant as well, amounting to almost $19 billion by 2020. Furthermore, adoption of telepresence delivers a return on investment (ROI) in as little as 15 months, and could lead to %147increased employee productivity, better work-life balance and faster decision making%148 as well, according to the study.

Recommendations provided by the study include establishing a corporate policy for telepresence utilization, raising awareness through such enticements as travel reductions in the quarterly goals of executives, and monitoring and in-depth reporting.

Dickinson of the CDP stated, %147Telepresence is a good example of a low-carbon solution that can bring financial savings and increase productivity while reducing emissions.%148