Going green with communication

Climate change is everybody's concern these days. The weather systems are changing and the effect on our ecological balance is becoming starkly visible.

Environmental sustainability and its pressures are generally concentrated around the industries that generate the green house gases, toxic wastes and the like. More often than not, we forget the role played by industries such as the IT and communications, and the financial services.

Recently, I listened to a podcast by Andrew Winston, author of 'Green to Gold'. He outlined the effect of the decisions of the finance industry on environment which I thought was interesting. He went on to cite that evangelists will have to look for business case to drive environment friendly initiatives and those aren't difficult to find.

British Petroleum for instance saved in excess of $1 billion by closely watching its carbon emissions from oil exploration. Walmart of all companies initiated a close watch on their energy emissions and ended saving up to 20% in electricity by moving to more environment friendly initiatives. I think similar value propositions can be found in the communication industry to contribute to the environment. Conferencing and collaboration is a great example. Shift from hardware to software is another contribution.