Corporate Canada seems to be suddenly ‘Thinking Green’. A day doesn’t go by without hearing about corporations that are not only becoming more environmentally aware, but are now starting to act to develop programs that support environmental programs of one type or another.
This led us to wonder…could telecommunications technologies enhance or accelerate corporate environment programs. We believe the answer is emphatically yes and will attempt to explain why.
Since we moved to our rural property late 2005, we have deployed various wired and wireless high speed network technologies and applications to enable us to work with our consultants and clients, disregarding their locations.
From our regular testing we have tracked that we consistently have faster high speed Internet access from our rural location than we did when both our office and house was located in downtown Markham, Ontario. (average 2.2MB downlink and 780KB uplink speeds).
So what is the “Green” Impact of high speed telecommunications and network applications?
Combining high speed telecommunications, network applications and teleworking, there are multiple positive impacts on the environment possible in addition to cost savings for the employees and the corporation.
1. Reduction of travel between our consultants and our corporate office – Prior to having deployed high-speed between all of our consultants and our offices, we would each drive to work together on projects on average of 2-3 days per week. Part of this was due to requiring access to corporate digital and paper-based information combined with working together collaboratively using different media.
According to the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA), the 2007 average annual ownership costs for operating a vehicle range from 7,080 – 9030 (as of December 2006 costs), which is an average of $19.40-$24.74/day.
We now come together at the beginning and end of a project where face-time is necessary. The rest of the time, we use various teleconference/web-based tools and remote system access to keep in touch, work together and share common information.
This results in a reduction of $49.48-$74.22 per week per consultant or $2,672.96 – $3,859.44 in individual travel costs by teleworking.
2. Reduction of travel between our office location and our clients – In the past, we did the majority of our work at our clients’ corporate offices. This would entail driving, flying or taking transit (if available) to and from their offices each day while we worked together.
We all use the same desktop programs and computing platforms, all have distributed high speed networks, as well as having access to teleconference and web-conferencing services. By using a variety of network-based applications and services we are now able to work with our clients remotely and reduce our travel time and effort.
We estimate that we have saved a minimum of 10-15 hours per week per consultant of time due to this shift. The savings have been consultant personal time, travel disbursements and associated expenses with a positive contribution to reducing fuel emissions due to reduced travel.
Therefore, through our reduction of 10-15 hours per week of travel, the savings would be $1,896.44 – $2418.52 per year per individual in automotive operating costs.
What is the overall environmental impact?
To understand the environmental impact of these changes, according to Natural Resources Canada, for every litre of gasoline used, the average car produces about 2.4 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2), the principal greenhouse gas.
Based on our personal average of 60 litres of gas per week used; by reducing the use of our own automobile one day per week, we are reducing our emissions by 28.8 kilograms per week or 1,497.50 kilograms per week.
Our total emissions reductions, as a small firm, is 22,464 kilograms. Now ain’t that heavy!
Summary
With a combined savings of $4400-$6300 per consultant in automobile cost savings and emissions reductions of greater than twenty three thousand kilograms, telecommunications can certainly enable corporations to go green!
Advice for the Telecommunications Industry
Get to know your clients environment costs and impacts and help them understand that some of the savings can go to supporting technology investments and that the environmental impact supports their corporate environmental programs.
Let’s all use telecommunications to reduce our environment impact and help our companies ‘Go green’!
If you would like to know more about FOX Groups’ research and studies on telework, network investments and environmental impacts, contact Roberta Fox at 905.473.3369 x 1001 or Roberta.Fox@FOXGROUP.ca.