Telecom — Helping to Make Businesses Greener

As with most business-to-business industries, there are two ways to view a company’s ‘green’ quotient. One way is to measure how sustainable the business is in delivering its service or manufacturing its product. The other way is to measure how well the industry’s product or service enables customers to reduce their own carbon footprint. Some green economist purists may combine the two in order to measure the net effect.

Admittedly, there are several areas where the telecom industry can improve its sustainability. Areas that come to mind immediately are pollution caused by transit (mainly truck rolls to customer sites), power usage and the recycling of electronic and consumable waste.

But with regard to how well a company empowers its customers to become more sustainable and environmentally friendly, it’s hard to beat telecommunications. Telecommunication services allow companies to reduce reliance on hard-copy documentation and travel — areas that generate waste and use natural resources.

Simply by relying on electronic formats that can be e-mailed, telecommunications not only has made business more efficient but easier on the environment. Since 2001, the U.S. Postal Service has seen a steady decline in the amount of first-class mail. This can be attributable mainly to the rise in popularity of e-mail and Web sites among businesses. The penetration of high-speed Internet access at homes and the increase in postal rates only has accelerated that decline. Businesses seeking to boost their profits, increase efficiency and reduce their waste find a perfect solution in e-mail. And with many of those businesses serving online consumers who increasingly are becoming Internet-savvy, businesses can perform more of their core functions online. E-mail and robust Web sites that provide real-time information allow businesses to rely less on traditional, hard-copy documentation that require fossil-fuel burning, pollution-generating vehicles to deliver it.

This trend is supported by a 2007 study conducted by Riley Research Associates in Portland, Ore. When asked to choose their preferred method of communication, the largest percentage of Integra customers (small and medium-sized U.S. businesses throughout 11 western states) identified e-mail as their communication method of choice. Thirty-eight percent chose e-mail as their preferred method. And what was No. 2? Twenty-eight percent chose a phone call from a company representative. This means more than half chose a telecom-dependent service as their top choice for communicating.

Consumers, customers and carriers will rely on telecom for efficiency and in the process naturally will be kinder and gentler on the earth, too.

John Nee is vice president of corporate communications at Integra Telecom. Prior to joining Integra in 2000, Nee held management positions with Sequent Computer Systems (now IBM) and Creativepro.com, where he managed sales, strategic partnerships, application services development and marketing.