It’s interesting to see how often it comes up in the news these days that we are damaging the planet with excessive travel. At the end of 2018, we brought you our Series on Sustainability. In the series, we explained the basics of climate change and how business travel can cause harmful effects on the environment.

Considering that one tree can compensate for 500kg of CO2 in a lifetime, each passenger of a flight from London to New York would have to plant around 6 trees to compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately, more sustainable travel solutions such as trains are often more expensive than air travel.

However, there are plenty of ways we hope and wish that governments and businesses will make changes to frequency that we travel. We would love to see a world where everyone is making small steps in their everyday life to help save the only planet we have! One possibility to reduce the frequency of business travel is to make use of business telephonic solutions to offset the demands of travel.

Use your virtual PBX

Having access to the virtual PBX means your employees can work from anywhere. This can allow you to hire people who live in other cities without worrying about footing the cost of travel. When there is an important conference to attend cross-country or overseas, whoever makes the trip can easily communicate with the office.

Local phone numbers

To minimize travel between business meetings, we can help you set up local phone numbers. This allows your distant colleagues and clients to contact you without having to pay the costs for calls between different countries. And, for urgent situations, this is a great solution to emergency travel for meetings.

Conference call-in numbers

Avoid traveling cross-country by making use of conference calls rather than face-to-face meetings. Those invited to the teleconference can access it through a bridge number. This is a number they can call to connect to the conference call from wherever they are. This gives you less of a need for frequent meetings, and your business travel expenses will be considerably lower.

A bonus to all of these solutions? By engaging in less business travel, your company’s carbo footprint will decrease dramatically! Saving money and saving the planet? We call that a win-win situation!

Contact us today to learn about these solutions and more.

Imagine this.

It’s mid-21st century. Year 2047.

Worldwide, annual carbon emissions have dropped in the past 30 years from 410 ppm in 2018 to below 300 ppm. The lowest we’ve seen since the start of the Industrial Revolution.

Global warming has come to staggering stop, keeping us in the safe range of greenhouse gases predicted by scientists. Our glaciers have been given the opportunity to recover from years of melting. Permafrost in the North and South poles have not seen a change in more than 20 years.

The sea level rise as we have expected it at the beginning of the century did not occur. In turn, the whole of the Caribbean has survived and tourism to the islands has hit an all-time high. Underwater ecosystems in every one of our oceans, lakes, rivers, and streams are thriving, just as they should be. The Great Barrier Reef has not only recovered from extensive damage in the 20th century, but it has grown by nearly 30%!

What a dream that would be if none of the consequences of global warming were to happen. And did you know that it’s not so impossible for us to attain?

We can do it!

As a species we, humanity, have started to focus on repairing the damage and effects of climate change we’ve done to our precious Earth. We continue to strive for sustainability and ecological well-being, leaving greed and environmental pollution (as well as global warming and climate change) behind.

The United Nations have worked hard over the course of 21 years of global meetings to draft and sign a plan called Paris Climate Agreement. Officially, the Paris Agreement came into action in November 2016.

What is the Paris agreement?

There are a number of elements to this climate change agreement, the main one is for all the countries to work together and lower annual carbon emissions to pre-industrial days. The hope is that by doing this, we will be able to maintain climate change at 2 degrees (or less!) Celsius in the future.

Even more, the Paris Climate Agreement aims to have all those involved – over 190 countries – to work together towards a more sustainable strategy, and building the technology and infrastructure needed to maintain such sustainable practices. Europe agreed to reduce carbon dioxide emission by 40% until 2030, compared to 1990, and to become “climate neutral” by 2050.

Although the Paris agreement’s frame has been set up, the progress in reducing CO2-emission has to be continually checked and improved. Therefore, in December 2018, representatives from all countries came together for a climate change conference in Kattowice (Poland) to discuss which climate goals have been met so far.

Perhaps one of the most important aims is for climate change education, access to information, and getting the public involved in and aware of what we can be doing on a daily basis to help heal our Earth from further damage. It is so incredibly important for us to understand what it is each and every one of us can to do fight the causes of climate change to make positive change.

Set-backs won’t lead to a full stop

With that said, that dream we mentioned earlier? That dream may become obsolete due to decisions made by the current administration.

Unfortunately, on June 1, 2017, the President of the United States made a bold statement that his country would be pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement. His reasoning? He believes the previous administration made a poor economic deal for America.

Luckily for the other 195 countries who have agreed to comply with the Paris Agreement, the United States’ potential rescinding from the deal will not cause a collapse of its framework. The lack of funding from the United States, however, will cause a wide funding gap in the plan which may make it difficult to keep up with the plan to prevent global warming.

However, not only the United States but also European countries pull out of their promises: Angela Merkel recently announced to miss the German climate targets of 2020 previously agreed on. France, too, was not able to meet their climate targets.

This lack of commitment seen in many countries may seriously threaten the success of the Paris Agreement, and in turn, the chances to prevent the consequences of global warming itself.

The change comes from us

It is us who consume, who travel, who need to heat and cool our homes, and so it is us who need to make intentional changes and search for global warming solutions. Overarching governmental bodies can have as many agreements and regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in place as they want, but nothing will change if we don’t.

Why wait for the government and institutions to make agreements and decisions about legislation that directly affects our lives? Why not work towards bettering the world, one small bit at a time? We know how to stop global warming and how to reduce your carbon footprint, why not start ourselves?

The Paris Agreement wants to heighten taxation on carbon emissions. But what if, instead, we offered benefits to those of us who make concessions in our day to day life in favor of environmental protection? What if city governments implemented a City Pass that you could use whenever you shop locally. With the pass, you could save up points (like an AirMiles card!) and at the end of the year you could submit your points to get some sort of reward. That reward might look like savings on city taxes for the coming year. Or maybe even an extra rebate on your income tax return.

Imagine how motivated this would get people to stay local instead of expending their energy on going long distances, both physical and carbon-fueled! Is this of of the climate change solutions? Who knows! But what’s important is that we start to think about these possibilities, to benefit us in the near and distant future!

In this instalment of the sustainability series, we thought it would be interesting to take a moment to take a closer look at air travel for business purposes. In the last post, we talked about the cost of carbon dioxide emissions on the environment and how its intensity seems to be growing exponentially. Here, we want to share some of our own ideas and strategies for minimizing our carbon footprint by changing our behaviour when it comes to business travel.

Business travel is a topic to worry about. It’s true that with the globalization of the economy moving as fast as it is today, there are some instances where it might be necessary to make the plane journey to face-to-face meetings. Albeit the sustainability issues, we won’t deny that, as some of our staff have out-of-country meetings which require air travel, too. For international partnerships which require crossing the ocean, we absolutely understand that it’s just not plausible to hop on the Queen Mary II to get across the Atlantic from the East Coast to fight the global climate change.

Cut back on business travel

However, there are a number of meetings that don’t require such long and difficult distances. There are plenty of times where carpooling or a train journey can take the place of a flight. Sure, it may take longer to arrive, but these alternative forms of sustainable transportation have their bonuses. Think about the time you could spend discussing the details for an important meeting with your colleagues, or simply just take some time out of your busy schedule to watch the world go by.

Currently, jet fuel, aviation gasoline as well as plane tickets are taxed very low (up to no taxes, for example in Germany) which has given the opportunity for airlines to offer lower and lower ticket prices. Moreover, many cheap airlines in Europe compete for the cheapest fares and are able to cut the prices, while railway providers (who offer green travel and a possibility for ecotourism) lag behind. As such, inexpensive air travel has become integrated into our business lives that we are so easily persuaded and addicted to traveling.

A European organization which promotes “a transport policy based on the principles of sustainable development” called Transport and Environment has created a briefing which suggests the possibility of a drastic increase in taxes in favour of sustainable tourism. In this case, ticket prices would inevitably be forced to rise. Now, for large, multinational companies, such an increase in the price of travel may not make a big difference regarding their monthly expenses. However, this could seriously damage midsize and smaller businesses who are at the core of economic growth and arguably the largest generators of today’s jobs. Even the slightest increases to their travel expenses, even if they are caused by sustainable practices, could create major budgeting issues, and even potential collapse of their businesses.

Maybe it’s not ideal or convenient to change the way we travel for business from flying to more sustainable transportation, but at the rate we are going, not only might businesses collapse under the financial pressures, but our planet, too. Changing to sustainable resources when it comes to traveling is absolutely necessary: the less we opt for unnecessary travel, the less flights are needed per day between destinations. This means that the large amount of carbon emissions from a large amount of flights can be drastically minimized, contributing to environmental protection! (In case you forgot, we suggest you reread our last article about the cost of air travel for global warming!)

Sustainable management by means of conference call services

Luckily, conference call services as we provide them can help out. In any case, making use conference call services will not be affected by a tax increase, meaning that businesses do not have to fear budgeting issues (to be honest, they are probably even cheaper compared to air travel!). Besides reduced cost, it saves every business traveller time, jet lags and offers a possibility to reduce our carbon footprint. And, last but not least, it does not produce any carbon emissions, making a huge impact global warming and climate change.

Also, corporate sustainability becomes more and more important for brands in terms of marketing and external communication. Many customers prefer sustainable companies over competitors without a sustainable strategy. By making a conference call with international colleagues instead of traveling by plane, your company makes a first step into becoming a sustainable business.

So, let’s think about those smaller, shorter trips and meetings which could be eliminated altogether. Think about the time, money, effort and greenhouse gas emissions that can be saved from using teleconferencing rather than traveling to and from constant meetings between national and international offices. Contact us today to get your toll free virtual number as soon as possible and help us save our precious planet!

In this instalment of our Series on Sustainability, we will talk about the extent to which your air travel truly impacts our planet in regard to global warming and climate change.

While the European commission’s calculations state that carbon dioxide emissions from commercial air travel is only equivalent to about 3% of the total European carbon emissions and 2% of the global emissions, it is on the top of the list of things we can do as individuals to engage in polluting the world a little bit less and to prevent the effects of climate change.

How many times per month do your (international) colleagues travel for meetings? Did you know that for a round-trip flight from London to Madrid (about 2500 km), approximately 0.6 tonnes of CO2 are calculated through fuel combustion – per person. This doesn’t sound like a lot? According to Google Flights, there are up to 60 (!) flights per day between these cities. As you can probably imagine, this business trip last month was not too great for your carbon footprint.

How to reduce your carbon footprint from air travel?

One of the ways to reduce carbon footprint is to pay for carbon offset. Paying for carbon offset offers a possibility to compensate the carbon emissions per flight by investing in projects aimed at protecting the environment. For example, it is possible to donate money which will be used to plant new trees to absorb the carbon dioxide emissions which aims at counteracting the effects of global warming. Assuming that one tree is able to absorb roughly 500kg of carbon dioxide in its entire life, every passenger on this trip would have to plant one tree to compensate for their aviation emissions. So, if there are 100 people on this trip, 100 trees would have to be planted – just for this one flight!

If that’s the number for travel within Europe, think about how much pollution is created when it comes to overseas business travel. An average intercontinental flight – let’s say from New York to London – is a 11.100 km round-trip. Our carbon footprint calculator states that, pollution wise, that’s 2.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide. If we do the math, we would have to plant closer to 6 trees per person to counteract the carbon emissions. Given that international flying planes are larger, let’s say there are about 234 people, that’s 1404 trees to plant per flight.

Sustainable management by making use of conference call services

With that said, the best way to reduce carbon footprint is to engage in sustainable transportation and to not fly at all. We simply do not have the space or resources on our tiny planet to be able to offset such drastic carbon dioxide emissions. By minimizing air travel for business, think about the amount of pollution you could avoid contributing per person!

In order to do so, we strongly believe in the power of conference calling using our non-geographical, virtual phone numbers to enhance environmental sustainability. Any number of people can join in on business meetings through the ease of telephony without having to leave the office, deal with jet lag, and (arguably most important) pollute our precious planet.

Get in contact today for a free quote to implement your toll-free virtual numbers so we can help you do your part in keeping our planet just a little bit safer from the effects of climate change.

As we are slowly approaching the end of the first quarter of the millennium, society is becoming increasingly aware of the impact their lives have on the state of the environment. For decades, there has been talk about the effects of the use of fossil fuels on global warming and climate change. Still, every solution seems to be very big and out of reach for us to be able to make any significant change to reduce the effects of global warming.

What is climate change?

To understand climate change, we first need to discuss what is global warming. Global warming means that the temperature on our earth is raising constantly. This leads to climate change, i.e. not only the temperatures but also the weather and climate conditions are changing, which has diverse effects on our plant and environment.

One of the most well-known spokesperson for the effects of climate change is the American politician Al Gore, who released his documentary film An Inconvenient Truth about global climate change in 2006. His film was widely acclaimed and evoked a comprehensive range of positive (and unfortunately negative) responses to the climate issue. Effectively, Gore helped bring to light the realities of what humans have done to our planet over time with regards to environmental pollution as a cause of climate change. Moreover, he offered ways that we, as an entire society, can make positive changes to slow down and potentially stop any further damage and reduce the consequences of global warming.

The causes of global warming

For many of us these things can seem out of reach for us to feel like we are making a difference, even if it’s something really small. Every one of us creates something called a carbon Footprint. The magazine TakePart gives a great definition of the carbon footprint as: “the amount of greenhouse gases—primarily carbon dioxide—released into the atmosphere by a particular human activity”. This means that everything we do, from the food we consume to our chosen means of travel, has some sort of effect on the amount of greenhouse gases that are dispersed into the world.

Look for example at the impact that human involvement has had on temperature changes. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an international organisation founded in 1988 by the United Nations that looks at the facts and figures which directly and indirectly contribute to climate change and the socio-economic and environmental consequences of global warming.

In their most recent summary report for policy makers, they state that the drastic increase in greenhouse gas emissions since the pre-industrial era is extremely likely to be the cause of the unanticipated and dangerous changes in climate that we have been experiencing, especially in the last two decades such as the sea level rise.

How to stop climate change: less business traveling!

In this Series on environmental sustainability, we aim to give you a more detailed and accessible understanding of the consequences of carbon emissions in industry and ways to reduce your carbon footprint. Furthermore, we hope to offer helpful tips on how to stop global warming by practicing corporate sustainability for example by making more educated decision about your business travel needs. We encourage you to cut down on your monthly business travel through making use of conference call services. In the next instalment of this series where we will break down the effects of air travel on carbon emissions.

In the meantime, do not hesitate to get in contact with us for a free quote for your next toll free virtual number for all of your business’ conference call needs.