MONTREAL – Two new tools launched today by Bell Canada are meant to help business customers get a little more environmentally friendly, the company said today.
The Smart Meeting Guide shows how virtual meetings through Bell Conferencing Solutions can make a real difference in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and cutting travel costs, including time lost while on the road.
Its companion tool, the online Green Meeting Calculator, allows customers to measure just how much greenhouse gas emissions can be cut through virtual meetings. Check it out here: www.conferences.bell.ca/en/
“More and more Canadian businesses are making the link between business travel and global warming," said Claude Rousseau, senior vice-president, enterprise sales at Bell. "When they are able to actually calculate the greenhouse gas savings resulting from virtual conferencing solutions, the choice becomes obvious."
For example, a business can reduce emissions by about 150 kilograms using a two-hour web conference instead of a plane flight between Toronto and Montreal for one person. That’s equal to the emissions produced by lighting and heating an average Canadian household for eight days, according to the Bell release.
“Those reductions add up. Bell’s customers and employees held 2.53 million teleconferences in 2006, avoiding an estimated 1.7 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. That’s equivalent to the annual emissions of 344,000 mid-size cars,” it continues.
Bell is using these new tools in work it is doing with the British Columbia government to actively promote the green initiative to its employees and help the government reach its reduction targets, it added.
“Bell’s commitment to help fight climate change – an important part of the company’s sustainability commitment – was recognized recently by the Carbon Disclosure Project. Bell ranked among the best in class on the Climate\ Disclosure Leadership Index. Bell was the only North American telecom company to make the FT500 listing, a ranking based on a company’s reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and an assessment of its climate protection strategies,” concludes the release.
