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Time to clip your wings

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Technological advances, notably telepresence, mean that videoconferencing is now a viable alternative to face-to-face meetings (see caption).With employee travel accounting for 50% or more of a non-manufacturing company’s carbon footprint, many businesses are already achieving substantial cost savings as a result of its use.

Yet, according to a new report by WorldWildlife Fund (WWF), Virtual Meetings and Climate Innovation in the 21st Century , “substitution from air travel to videoconferencing is happening relatively slowly”. Ever eager to see signs of a tipping point in videoconferencing usage, its exponents have seized on new figures from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) as evidence that habits are changing. In March, the CAA announced that last year UK airports handled 1.9% fewer passengers than in 2007, the first fall in passenger numbers since 1991. Figures published in May show that business travel has declined even more steeply, with a fall of 6% in passenger numbers at the major London airports. This decline has coincided with greater use of audio, video and webconferencing –WebEx saw customer numbers rise by 42% in 2008. However, the same period also saw a rise in train bookings between domestic cities served by airports, perhaps indicating that people are still travelling to meetings but choosing to do so via greener modes of transport. According to online ticket retailer thetrainline.com, the last 12 months have seen a 13% increase in the number of business passengers booking rail tickets between London and Scotland and a 10% increase in business bookings between London and Manchester.

The big question is whether the decline in airline passenger numbers and growing use of videoconferencing are happening for financial reasons or because of greater interest in sustainable travel.

The fact that air travel for business purposes at UK airports continued to grow during a period of mounting concern about the environment, rising

from 20 million passengers in 1996 to 63 million in 2007, and only faltered when the recession started to bite suggests that the changes have largely been undertaken for financial reasons. This assumption is supported by the latest npower Business Energy Index. The annual survey of 300 businesses found that 97% of respondents are more concerned with reducing costs than emissions.

A step change

No wonder the authors of WWF’s report are sceptical about the ability of ‘virtual meetings’ to influence the way business meetings are conducted. The executive summary states that barriers to the take-up of the technology are such that “videoconferencing is expected to have little impact on air travel, which is projected to grow by 4% a year for the foreseeable future.”

It continues: “Growth will be even greater in developing economies, such as China and India, which currently have only 60 and 20 air trips per 1,000 people respectively, compared to 2,300 in the USA”.

The report’s authors argue that if climate change targets are to be met and Asia is not to adopt Western patterns of business mobility, there needs to be “a step change in the prevalence of virtual meetings”.

Virtual meetings are essential if we are to meet global carbon reduction targets

1. Telecommuting. Enable people to work from home while still being fully engaged in the workplace.

2. Access to Remote Experts. Connect customers and employees to experts and advisors face-to-face through video communications.

3. Global Meetings.Whether meeting with the board or your global team, there’s no need for everyone to take a long flight.

4. Customer Briefing Centres. Video communication unites purchasers, clients, sales staff and engineers in real time without travel to facilitate instant decision making.

5. Work/life Balance. Video removes the need to travel, increasing morale, productivity, and collaboration .

6. Distance Learning. Schools, hospitals and other training facilities can connect to remote institutions to enhance learning opportunities and share recorded content for future lessons.

7. Research and Development. Designers and researchers around the globe can hold live face-to-face discussions to advance development timelines without increasing their carbon footprint.

8. Team Building. Multiple offices don’t have to mean isolated teams. Videoconferencing allows remote teammates to see each other, enhancing collaboration and building camaraderie without associated wastes of travel.

9. HR Recruiting. Initial face-to-face screenings of out-of-town candidates cut costs and carbon emissions by eliminating the need to travel to interviews.

10. Real-time Collaboration. Organisations can deal with large amounts of rich data and collaborate in real-time from multiple locations.

www.seegreennow.com

Tandberg says customers can reduce the need to travel by up to 30% by using videoconferencing systems for: