Ways To Green Your Business (Part 3)
The past two weeks we talked about some small changes that your organization can implement in order to become greener.
Now let’s talk about conferencing. The great thing about using more conferencing within your organization, is that is has so many great benefits, besides just making your organization more green!
• Conferencing Saves Your Employees Time
Time saved by not travelling can be used with family and friend, increasing the satisfaction and morale of your employees.
• Conferencing Saves Your Organization Money
Savings are obvious through replacing airline and vehicle travel, hotel rooms, and lost productivity with conferencing, which is very inexpensive.
• Conferencing Greatly Reduces Carbon Emissions
Whether through reduced airline travel, vehicle commuting, or reduced office space, conferencing reduces carbon emissions. Air travel is currently one of the largest contributors to CO2 emissions.
• Telecommuting is Inherently Green
Telecommuting reduces not only travel carbon emissions, but can save energy as well. Organizations also benefit as studies show that telecommuters have increased productivity due to fewer distractions, and tend to work longer hours as they start their day earlier and end it later due to eliminating commuting time.
Conferencing solutions will never replace all in-person meetings, but even adding a small amount of conferencing to your organization’s mix will make you greener, save you time and money, and increase satisfaction of your employees. A true win/win!
Last week we talked about some small changes that your organization can implement in order to become greener.
Here are a few more ideas to consider:
1. Maximize the efficiency of your computer systems. Computers in the business sector unnecessarily waste $1 billion worth of electricity per year. Turn off your computer and the power strip when you leave for the day. (Be sure your IT department doesn’t need the computer to be on in order to run backups or other maintenance.) During the day set your computer to go to sleep automatically during short breaks. Screen savers do not save energy! Sleep mode does!
2. Change your purchasing habits. Purchase office supplies and furniture made from recycled materials.
3. Change your eating habits. Bring your own coffee mug and dishware and reuse them for office meals, or ask your organization to provide reusable dishes, silverware, and coffee mugs. Provide filtered drinking water in order to eliminate bottled-water waste.
4. Make your office healthier. Brighten your office space with live plants, which help reduce indoor pollution. Switch to nontoxic cleaning products.
Next week we’ll discuss more tips for Greening Your Business!
A few years ago being “green” was all the buzz. It seems to us at TelSpan that lately you don’t hear as much about it as you used to. What happened? We all still care about the environment don’t we?
I believe that as the economy has become more challenging, initiatives such as “greening” have taken a back seat to the basic functions needed to keep our organizations financially viable. There is also a perception among some that “going green” is expensive.
While construction costs of a LEED certified building may indeed be cost prohibitive, there are many little things that almost any organization can do to help “green” their business:
1. Ban styrofoam cups, disposable plates and silverware and instead provide employees with a reusable cup.
2. Start up or improve a recycling program by putting labeled bins in common areas. If your trash provider charges extra for recycling pickup, see if employees will volunteer to take turns hauling out the recycling and dropping it off or adding it to their home bin.
3. Reduce electricity usage. Artificial lighting accounts for about 44 percent of office building electricity use. Turn off lights when you leave a room and use natural light whenever possible.
4. Improve your printing habits. The average US office worker goes through 10,000 sheets of copy paper a year. Utilize two-sided printing, reuse the backside of papers as scrap paper, avoid color printing, and when possible, don’t print at all.
5. Store documents online. Instead of printing and filing, maintain an electronic document filing system.
Next week we’ll discuss more tips for Greening Your Business!
Are attendance numbers down for your live events, due to economic woes and expensive travel? Do you have important material to present that is not being seen by the targeted recipients? If so consider reaching a far greater audience via a Live Event Simulcast.
A Live Event Simulcast is an event which takes place in front of a live audience, but is simultaneously streamed over the internet, for audience members in remote locations to view in real time via a PC. It is a great way to make sure your information reaches all of those attendees who can’t afford to make the trip in person. Your attendance numbers will increase, resulting in greater productivity at a lower cost.
TelSpan’s MediaPresenter, can allow you to stream your live event to a vast audience with no added effort or stress. TelSpan can assist with equipment setup at your event location, monitor the presentation quality throughout your event, and disperse that content using MediaPresenter. Remotely, participants can view the presentation in real time with a simple click of the mouse.
If it’s time to get your events back on track, contact TelSpan today to discuss our Live Event Simulcast options!
Microsoft has just debuted the first peek of Windows 8. This is rumored to be the largest change in the look and feel of Windows since Windows 95. Enjoy!
http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/02/windows-8-gorgeous-shell-video/
Ah summer. The traditional time for families to jump in the car and cruise across the United States. This year fuel prices are on the rise and are impacting vacation planning, as well as plans for business travel. Recent surveys show that travelers are amending or canceling their travel plans for this summer due to the high cost of fuel. The good news is that decreases in planned travel mean that more incentives and discounts are available for those willing to take the plunge.
Here are some ways to lower your vacation costs this summer:
• Search the internet for discounts and incentives from hotels, cruises, and resorts
• Consider sharing travel costs with another family
• Stay closer to home and visit local parks and other local attractions
• If you’re willing to wait, watch for last minute deals
• Plan your visit during off-peak times
• Sign up for rewards/rebates programs
Of course if you are looking to reduce business travel costs while finding more time to spend with your family, conference with TelSpan instead of taking a business trip!
A password is a powerful authentication tool that works to ensure only appropriate users have access to sensitive data and administrative rights. It will act as a key to such things, but not all passwords are created equal. It is important to prevent a password from falling into the wrong hands and to keep the power it grants authentic only to you. To decrease the likelihood of having a password being compromised it is recommended to:
• Make your password as long as possible. There is no perfect length, however the longer the password is, the more resistant it will be to a brute force attack. Six to fourteen characters is typically satisfactory.
• Use as many different characters as possible, including numbers and/or symbols.
• Avoid using personal information or anything likely to be deciphered with minimal research or knowledge about you.
• Avoid using words, geographical, or biographical names that can be found in standard dictionaries of any language.
• Consider using both upper and lower case characters intermittently within a password.
• Periodically change your password to protect against compromises. There is no perfect amount of time to retain a password, but stale passwords can pose a risk of being uncovered the longer they exist.
A good strategy for developing memorable yet complex passwords is to make it the acronym for a particular phrase, preferably one involving numbers and names to represent capitalized letters. For example: "Lex Luthor took forty cakes and that is terrible" would translate to the complex password of "LLt40catit" yet has a personalized mnemonic device to remember it.
Another tactic for developing a good password is to intentionally misspell or break words up with symbols, for example "braekfast17" or "49Ele%phants".
Avoid writing passwords down if possible or sharing them with anyone. A good password will be random to anyone other than you.
If you’re like me, you’re already knee deep into your organization’s budgeting process for 2011. Most organizations are still suffering the effects of the tight economy and no doubt this will affect the budgeting process for next year. Now is the time to take a careful look at every line item. The economic forecast continues to call for a slow steady recovery the next five years, continued high unemployment, and increased inflation over the next 2-3 years. Organizations should resist the urge to cut back all line items, and should continue to make wise investments in sales and marketing, capital improvements, real estate, and research and development in order to be well positioned through the recovery.
As you budget for next year, take a hard look at how conferencing solutions can help your organization reduce travel and meeting costs, while increasing productivity. Conferencing solutions are easier to use than ever before, and prices are more affordable than ever! If you have never conducted a web conference, learn how it can benefit you. If you have never conducted lead generation webinars, learn how the ROI for these events make them a no brainer. If you’re an association not conducting webinars for your members, you are missing out on bottom line revenue and member retention and growth.
We’d love to talk to you now, to help you get the most out of your budget for 2011, and to help position your organization for growth in 2011 and beyond!
