December 24, 2007—Genesys Conferencing, a global multi-media collaboration service leader, has released the results of a recent survey of more than 15,000 users among its Global 1000 customers, to gain insight into how companies are creating green programs to address special opportunities around the holiday vacation season.
The survey showed that while more than half of the companies polled have year-round green programs, few have instituted special procedures to take advantage of sparsely populated offices during the second half of December.
The survey also painted a picture of a highly committed workforce. More than half of vacationers plan to do some office related work from home. And nearly half said that they would be even more inclined to keep in contact with co-workers back at the office if they had the ability to participate in virtual web conferences from home during their time off.
The company offered these tips for a greener holiday workplace:
- Turn off lights, computers and office equipment in empty cubes, offices and low-traffic common areas;
- Avoid decorations that use electricity and display a live tree that can then be planted outside the building;
- Avoid unnecessary travel—the #1 polluter—by providing virtual meeting capabilities for people working from home during their vacation;
- Relax dress codes to save on laundry and dry cleaning energy; and
- Close cafeterias and use money saved for special treats to reward people for brown-bagging it.
Genesys is offering people a free tool to help decide when to meet in person or when to “go virtual,” available online. This tool allows individuals to calculate the cost of attending a meeting in-person, versus holding a virtual meeting.
Founded in 1986, Genesys Conferencing is a leading provider of unified collaboration and communication services to thousands of organizations worldwide, including more than half of the Fortune Global 500. For more on the company, see its Web site.
