Today my colleague Ian and I spoke with a few folks from the Government of Portugal about their initiative to equip all school-aged children with internet enabled computers. While this initiative is very much noteworthy (see Don’s post below), the setting for the meeting itself made a significant impression on both of us.

We used a Cisco TelePresence system which is basically a conference room with a wall of screens so that you can see who you are meeting with. The ultra fast internet connection ensures that the video is clear and that there are no latency issues. The effect is impressive as you are able to conduct a normal conversation (including eye contact and body language) with people sitting half way around the world.

Following the meeting Ian and I talked about how systems such as Cisco’s TelePresence could boost productivity by making at least some business travel unnecessary. With my interest in sustainability I also started to think about the impact of collaboration technologies such as telepresence on the environment – in particular the possibility of cutting down on emissions generated by cars and planes.

In fact this impact has already been calculated by a team from WWF which developed an interactive tool to illustrate the potential. The team calculated the CO2 savings from the use of IT collaboration tools instead of air travel or commuting. The numbers are significant – in North America alone the impact of replacing some business travel could yield up to 2 Mt in CO2 reductions (equivalent of taking over 800 000 off the roads). The savings jump to 13 Mt (5.5 million cars) if employees are allowed to work from home instead of commuting. The numbers speak for themselves – collaboration tools such as telepresence can have a significant positive impact both in terms of work efficiency as well as environmental sustainability. The hope is that adoption of these technologies is rapid enough to make a difference in the near future.

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