Just about every industry today has begun in some way to embrace ‘green’ practices. These green practices go beyond just recycling paper in the office, but include the replacement of machines like computers and servers, which require enormous amounts of power. Not only do these new changes help save the environment from the ill effects of carbon emissions, but there are also cost benefits that come along with it.
Businesses today are making the switch to hosted solutions, UC and VoIP. To keep up with this pace, manufacturers are focusing on how to make products more eco-friendly, from start to finish. As green advocates know, the entire design - what the products made out of, how it can be recycled, how much power the manufacturing uses - has to be accounted for to be truly “green.”
Because VoIP makes phone calls using the Internet, it eliminates the need for extra servers, equipment and lines. Business owners using VoIP to combine both data and voice into a single network not only make it less expensive but also easier to manage communications. Using a single network can also mean data centers are potentially be pumped with even more energy and release extra carbon emissions into the environment.
Because of this, one of the most important green qualities a VoIP solution can offer is low power consumption.
VoIP also gives businesses the option to allow employees to work from home since business phone calls can be routed to their home lines or mobile devices. This “work from home” ability can reduce carbon emissions from travel as well as save on electricity, gas and water use at the office.
Another factor helping to step-up businesses green efforts is Unified Communications (News - Alert) and more specifically, videoconferencing. With the ability for users to actively engage with potential business partners, different sites and employees around the world, greenhouse effects on the environment from reduced plane travel are drastic.
Another UC related technology, IP faxing has also made it possible to reduce the amount of paper and ink and allows employees to send and receive faxes through their inbox, from any location.
Since VoIP and IP faxing exist over the Internet, there is no longer the need for hardware or software ends to be manufactured and then discarded in landfills.
Perhaps the most important aspect of the green revolution is that industries have recognized the issue at hand and are stepping up efforts to help save the environment. Each attempt to reduce carbon emissions and improve workforce efficiency is a step in the right direction.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi