As a global supplier of IT services, personal transportation is the single most pressing environmental issue that also has the greatest impact on the climate. Providing consulting services involves a substantial amount of travel by car, air, rail, and public transportation. Cybercom tries in various ways to reduce the scope of such travel and to influence its employees' choice of transportation mode.
To reduce travel, the organisation is encouraged to hold telephone and video conferences whenever possible. Video conferences are possible in the Stockholm, Östersund, Tampere, and Helsinki offices. Ultimately all of the larger offices will be equipped with video conferencing capability. These investments are also important financially because personal travel accounts for a considerable expense.
Employees are encouraged to travel by train or bus rather than by plane. And when choosing a company car, they're encouraged to select a green vehicle. Most of Cybercom's offices are centrally located close to train and bus connections for convenient public transportation.
Energy consumption and environmental awareness
Besides reducing environmental impact of personal transportation, Cybercom is working on raising employee awareness of environmental issues, which are accounted for in all Cybercom operations.
Overall, Cybercom's operations have a rather low impact on the environment, and other than carbon dioxide emissions from personal transportation, its impact mainly involves consumption of office supplies and scrapping of computers. The company requires that (i) its suppliers of office materials and computers comply with TCO 95 and TCO 99, environmental standards, and (ii) all material can be recycled. In addition, Cybercom implements/encourages:
- Energy-saving efforts, such as timers to turn out lights after office hours.
- Proper disposal of old IT equipment. Equipment is sold for reuse whenever possible; otherwise equipment goes to partners for recycling.
- Default double-sided printing is set on all printers; employees are encouraged to avoid printouts as much as possible.
- Sorting paper and other waste for recycling.
- Purchase of products, consumables, and services that meet high environmental standards whenever possible.
Green IT increasingly crucial for the environment
Because climate issues have grown increasingly urgent, the green IT concept has become commonly accepted. But more ecofriendly, powersaving computers are only a small part of green IT. Using IT to reduce environmental impact in totally different areas is much more important.
To some extent, green IT involves reducing the IT sector's own energy consumption, but the really significant environmental gains associated with IT involve how it can help reduce the burden on the environment elsewhere in society, for example, IT:
- Provides new opportunities to direct, regulate, monitor, and optimise various courses of events – from industrial processes and traffic flows to indoor climate and printer queues.
- Can replace physical products and activities with electronic information. We shop online instead of driving to the store, and increasingly we want goods in electronic format (e.g., downloaded music, movies, and software). Electronic documents are replacing paper, and video conferences replace travel. Teleworking a day or so a week cuts commuting.
- Provides R&D with calculation capabilities that facilitate more sophisticated data modelling of everything from energy-efficient vehicles to new energy sources.
- Can be used as an information channel and a teaching aid. Graphic, interactive presentation of electricity consumption can now be found instead of meter figures on an electricity bill. And especially: the Internet as a means of communication involves totally new opportunities to search for knowledge and disseminate innovative ideas.