The industry has been giving “lip service” to the issue and talking about the use of the network for reducing carbon emissions, etc., for several years. As we reported in the recent report, “2010 Business Communications Drivers,” “green” initiatives are continuing to gain some momentum.
However, these are not yet considered to be overwhelming. Twenty-two percent of the survey respondents indicated that environmental concerns were “Very Important” and that they carefully consider the environmental impact of their issues. And an additional 54% indicated that environmental issues were important, but not a driving factor or that that environmental factors were important primarily from a cost-savings perspective.
It’s our hope that this view may be changing somewhat and becoming a “top of mind” issue in light of the recent coal mine tragedy in West Virginia and the ongoing issues with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Indeed, networking technology, via technologies such as telepresence and collaboration, offer the opportunity to implement a fundamental change in how we approach travel and other energy-intensive business functions.
This issue is explored particularly well in AT&T’s paper, “Networking for Environmental Sustainability” and the particularly attractive aspect of this paper is that it’s not “Let’s Save the Environment” fluff. Rather, it takes an objective, analytical approach, and include extensive end-notes to substantiate and document the claims made in the paper.
Nevertheless, we remain in a world where it may well take a while for social aspects of doing business to catch up with available technology. As our associate, Peter Brockmann, observed, “Having customers take the lead, and ask their vendors to do telepresence instead of lengthy in-person meetings is one of the major ways we can get over that cultural hurdle. In non-U.S. cultures, there is much cultural resistance to audio conference calls too. Suppliers feel that a face-to-face is a sign of respect for customers, and customers feel that it is recognition of their importance to the supplier that they travel to meet them.”
