Collaboration software has played a vital role in keeping businesses connected over the last 18 months, but a by-product of this has been a reduction in emissions as employees worked from home more and travelled less.
Research suggests that global emissions were down over six percent last year, halting a year-on-year rise that had gone on for decades. In the US, emissions plummeted more than double this figure at 13 percent.
Tu-Han Phan leads RingCentral’s social impact and diversity strategy which includes, among other things, the impact of technology on the environment.
She told UC Today that many organisations were uncomfortable at being forced into remote working at the start of the pandemic, but many have since realised the benefits it can have both on their business and the environment.
“We call ourselves the dreamers in this equation because we saw this not just as a business opportunity but actually as a really good thing,” Tu-Han said. “There’s so much you can do when you work remotely if you embrace it.
“Businesses that weren’t already thinking about remote working and the environment felt like they had their backs against the wall. They felt cornered when they were forced to migrate to a remote working space.
“But you can be more inclusive, you can do things in a more impromptu way and there are no geographic barriers.
“When it comes to the environment specifically, there’s a reduction in travel – whether that’s to the office or flying across the globe – and there’s the reduction in the resources being used in an office as well.
“Early in the pandemic, one of our colleagues calculated the time, money and CO2 emissions they were saving by not having to commute to work. This message echoes the sentiment of the vast majority of our workforce, who feel a strong personal investment in environmental responsibility”
Tu-Han describes this as the early phase of a journey towards being more environmentally conscious. In this phase, businesses are being more environmentally friendly, even if doing so wasn’t the primary aim of the change in strategy.
But once businesses realise that they can work effectively in a remote setup, the environmental benefits of doing so can become a bigger factor in the decisions they take moving forward.
Tu-Han characterises this journey in three phases:
- Phase one: This is when a business has taken steps to help the environment, even if the environment wasn’t the driving force behind the steps – for example, recycling, travelling less and a reduction in printing
- Phase two: This phase is going a step further than the day-to-day operating of your own business and looking at areas such as supply chain, the companies you partner with and the impact on the environment of the products and services you deliver
- Phase three: This phase is going above and beyond looking at your own business, and trying to drive change outside of your organisation
“I’m not saying this is right or wrong, but businesses are usually thinking about their bottom line first,” Tu-Han said.
“So from a business perspective, when you’re thinking about a reduction in travel you’re thinking about the efficacy of your meetings and losing facetime.
“At RingCentral, our perspective is that once you’re able to pass those barriers you’ll see that meetings can be run just as effectively, you can start looking at phase two.”
The reduction of travel is just one example of where collaboration tools can be used to reduce environmental harm.
The use of virtual documents and slides, rather than printouts, can reduce the amount of waste paper generated, for example, while also improving the productivity of teams.
“I’ve seen workplaces where executive assistants are printing out physical calendars for executives, and we see lots of materials being handed out during presentations,” Tu-Han said. “All of that can be swooped into RingCentral to reduce waste.”
RingCentral has also taken steps internally to cut its own emissions. While it doesn’t manufacture physical products and doesn’t have an accredited environmental policy, the suppliers it works with do.
Its primary datacentre provider is Equinix which publishes its environmental policy and certifications online. These include ISO14001 and ISO50001, which concern environmental sustainability and responsible energy management.
But it is also important to consider the other side of the story. The huge adoption of the cloud over recent years has seen an increasing need for datacentres, which in turn demand power.
A recent report claimed that five technology companies – Amazon, Google, Facebook and Apple – use the same amount of electricity in a year as the whole of New Zealand.
Meanwhile, Greenpeace claims that China’s datacentre emissions are set to rocket by an estimated 289 per cent over the next 15 years. The likes of Amazon, Apple and Microsoft have however pledged to become carbon neutral.
Tu-Han said these discussions are all part of creating a world that is more sustainable.
“You have to ask these questions if you’re being completely objective,” she said.
“Studies are telling us that the carbon emissions produced from the increased use of technology are less than the total of pre-COVID travel.
“That’s the very short answer but my approach is that, if you want to be more green, you need to start somewhere.”
“Environmental sustainability is one of the core tenets of our approach to corporate responsibility,” Tu-Han said. “We published the details of our actions in our latest CSR report.
“It’s an improvement from how we did things in the past and is not perfected yet. It’s an indication of our increasing focus on how we can achieve environmental sustainability, and something we’re improving on this year and into the future.”
