Case Study: BT CONFERENCING
TRADE THE PlANE FOR
THE PHONE AND
REAP THE BENEFITS
According to carbon trading firm, Climate Care, the average International, suggests that, if 15 per cent of business trips can
return flight from London to Washington DC produces 1.64 be replaced by teleconferences, travel budgets can be cut by 11
tonnes of CO2 per person. But you don’t have to fly to meet per cent.
any more. Aaron McCormack, CEO of BT Conferencing,
looks at other options available to companies around the Conferencing is much better for the environment as well. A recent
globe. report by ETNO/WWF suggested that, if 20 per cent of business
travel in the EU 25 countries was replaced by video conferencing,
I
t seems no-one has a good word for business travel these 22.3 million tonnes of CO2 emissions could be eliminated annually.
days – and with good reason. Take the travellers themselves, for If just half the workers in the EU used an audio conference instead
example. The 1,200 business travellers surveyed for the 2006 of travelling to one meeting a year, 2.2 million tonnes of CO2
National Business Travel Monitor said that increasingly crowded emissions would be saved.
aeroplanes, tightened security, flight delays and late-night work-
related dinners were just some of the reasons why they would So if conferencing offers benefits all round, why aren’t more
rather stay at home. Other downsides reported included sleep companies using it more?
deprivation (47 per cent), increased stress (25 per cent) and
loneliness (23 per cent). The issue seems to be that a great many businesses think the job
ends when they’ve made conferencing services available. This is
CFOs don’t like business travel either. It’s expensive and can where they go wrong. Those introducing the systems also have a
make a big dent in their bottom line. A survey of managers in 56 responsibility to see they are used efficiently, that their people are
US companies of different sizes found they spent an average trained and feel confident with using them and that the investment
of almost US$11 million on travel in 2006. Twenty one per cent is put to good, effective use. And if companies can’t do this in
of those questioned reported expenditure in excess of US$50 house, they need to bring in a partner who can.
million. No wonder, then, that any opportunity to reduce costs
is pursued with vigour, even when times are good. Or that Encouraging change
companies place severe restrictions on business travel as soon
as times turn bad. There are all sorts of ways to encourage people to use conferencing
services.
Finally, there’s the environmental cost. Climate change is now
firmly on the global agenda – and very much a matter of public One Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company decided to publish a
concern. As more and more businesses are taking the issue dashboard that compared business units in terms of the number
seriously, some are finding that business travel is the principal of business trips made and their use of conferencing services.
source of their CO2 emissions. Swiss Re, for example, found The number of short business trips fell by 20 per cent as a result.
that 70 per cent of its total emissions were due to business
travel. It now encourages its employees to use conferencing Others lead by example. Take Unilever, for example. No-one from
services instead. the company’s deodorant division had to jump on a plane or book
into a hotel to attend its 2006 Half-Time Team Talk conference.
Environmental benefits Instead, they took part from the comfort of their own desks. During
the hour-long live web conference, they heard from the global
It’s surprising more companies aren’t following suit. These days, category board about the division’s half-year results and took part
conferencing services are readily available, easy to use and, in an interactive question and answer session.
in the majority of cases, as effective as face-to-face meetings.
They reduce the strain on employees and are much cheaper than Using conferencing, the company could bring 400 people from
business travel. A report by business travel specialist, Runzheimer 40 different countries together in an instant and with minimum
ecoexecutive | 32
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101