by Charles Ray

Created on: March 20, 2009   Last Updated: March 31, 2009

Work is what you do, not where you go: Use IT to telecommute yourself to green

Companies that are to prosper in the world of today have no choice but to consider 'going green This is true regardless of the size, but for the small or mid-size enterprise, it can be the very key to survival. Leveraging the capability of technology is one of the best ways for a mid-size company to 'green' itself, which puts the IT staff in a vanguard position. A first start in the use of IT to help a company lower its carbon footprint and be more environmentally conscious is to increase telecommuting; and in this effort, IT is key.

With rising energy costs, the long-term effects of climate change, and the increased public focus on protecting and preserving the environment, we all have to revise our views of what consititutes work or a work environment. We need to move away from the 'smokestack' economy's view of the workplace as a congregation of workers creating an enterprise's output, to one of an enterprise that integrates the efforts of its employees to create an output - without regard to the physical location of those employees. Companies engaged in manufacturing will still be required to congregate workers, but those enterprises engaged in knowledge management or service delivery can use existing technologies to achieve their output, without creating a large carbon footprint, through telecommuting.

With the new and emerging technologies, the concept of a nine-to-five office drudge tied to his or her desk is obselete. The boundaries of an enterprise are effectively global, with employees able to participate from remote locations throughout the globe. Some companies have already siezed upon this trend and are leading the way. Sun Microsystems, for instance, has nearly half of its 40,000 employees working from home or in flexible offices. The company has reduced its office space requirements by nearly 16 percent while productivity has increased by over 30 percent. Commuting time was reduced by over 100 hours annually, saving each employee nearly $900 per year in gasoline costs. As an added environmental benefit, consider that this is a huge reduction in the hours of cars emitting ozone-depleting fumes on the highways. Companies that have telecommuting programs experience lower overhead costs in such areas as utilities, rent and transportation. Sun's program, for instance, eliminated nearly 30,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions a year in 2007 by removing more than 10,000 cars from

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>