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Among the report’s recommended steps is the establishment of a global network of more than 4,000 high quality videoconferencing studios in cities around the world, bringing the beneﬁts of the technology to a much wider audience including small and medium-sized businesses that can’t afford their own facilities.

In the meantime,Western businesses should maximise the potential of virtual meetings to reduce carbon emissions by implementing business travel plans (see box) that encourage sustainable travel choices, including videoconferencing.

The report cites a number of schemes that have been set up to facilitate this approach, including Project Icarus from the Institute of Travel Management (ITM), which provides information, events and toolkits to help businesses reduce their travel and meetings management emissions by at least 80% from 1990 levels by 2050; and the ‘One in Five Challenge’ fromWWF-UK, a new initiative to encourage public and private sector organisations to reduce business ﬂights by 20% within ﬁve years.

To date videoconferencing has been a niche technology. If it is not to remain so, and if businesses are to reap the beneﬁts of the technology, it is essential to have a comprehensive business travel plan.

According to the AA, the UK’s 18 million driving commuters drive an average of 2,740 miles each year spending £10 billion each year on fuel alone.

More than one third (37%) of all trafﬁc on the roads is the result of people travelling to and from work and business meetings; seven out of 10 cars carry no passengers; and there are an estimated 38 million empty car seats on the road every day.

Heather McInroy, programme director of The National Business Travel Network (NBTN), is urging businesses to help transform people’s travelling habits by implementing smart travel plans for staff.

Currently just 6% of businesses facilitate sustainable travel for employees, according to a British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) survey. However, a YouGov survey commissioned by NBTN suggests that a work travel plan encompassing car sharing, cycle schemes, ﬂexible or home working and videoconferencing would be welcomed by almost two thirds of workers.

More than 1 in 4 (28%) of those surveyed stated that ﬂexible working would increase their loyalty to an employer and over one ﬁfth (24%) felt it would signiﬁcantly improve productivity.

McInroy believes that the breadth and scale

of travel plans is one reason why so few private sector organisations have implemented them to date.

“One of the obstacles to successful travel plans is not knowing where they ﬁt in an organisation and who has responsibility for them. The most logical is HR because it’s all about people and their access to work and meetings, and there are productivity and health beneﬁts. But sometimes it is the responsibility of CSR and sometimes estates,” she said. This confusion has two unfortunate consequences: travel plans are still viewed as a bolt-on activity and are not being integrated into companies’ core strategies; and the responsibility for devising them tends to be given to people just because they have some spare time.

Yet, as McInroy points out, to do it properly requires diverse skills. “You need to be a people person, but you also need to be good with data and you need change management skills,” she said.

Complex as it is, there is an established methodology for implementing travel plans and businesses that have done so have reaped considerable rewards, ranging from good PR and community relations to ﬁnancial savings through reduced travel costs and real estate requirements.

To ﬁnd out more about travel plans and how to implement them, visit

Paul Rutt, managing director of b2 business systems in Bangor and Deeside, took up cycling four years ago when he was 40. He now cycles the 40-mile round trip to and from work three days a week and in his spare time competes in some of Europe’s most gruelling races including the La Marmotte Sportive in the French Alps. Paul’s example has inspired four colleagues to take up cycling to work, with a further 20 registering with the company’s cycle to work scheme, which offers a contribution to the cost of buying a bicycle.

London businesses are being encouraged to demonstrate their green credentials by entering the third LondonWorkplace Cycle Challenge, taking place from June 1-30, 2009. To take part all you need to do is log the trips your team makes by bike on the cycle challenge website. For more details and to register your team, please visit www.tﬂ.gov.uk/cyclechallenge