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We recently attended a briefing on sustainability and ICT from BT Global Services (BTGS). Of course there were the obligatory stories about data-centre consolidation, virtualisation and the use of video conferencing that have all led to a reduction in BT’s carbon footprint and claimed cost reductions. However, BTGS was keen to offer a wider view of the company’s efforts to improve its sustainability credentials and the additional spin-offs that come from adding intelligence and orchestration to its networks and systems.

The benefits of flexible working practices go beyond sustainability
BTGS is a services organisation, so it not only has a preponderance of knowledge workers who could in theory ‘work from anywhere’ but it also has a large mobile workforce. While it’s not the same as a retail bank, a retailer or a manufacturer, where the majority of workers have to be on site or in store, commercial and public sector organisations are filled with back-office workers and sales forces that don’t need to be tied to a fixed office location five days a week. BTGS’s ‘Work Anywhere’ policy allows for flexible working and location independence. As a network provider and IT supplier, it has obvious economies of scale and capabilities that enable it to overcome some of the hurdles and objections to home working that characterise many organisations outside the IT sector. But even so, the benefits of enabling home working and location independence go beyond the 58% reduction in carbon emissions, the 1.5 million journeys eliminated per year, and the consequent reduction in fuel and travel savings. The secondary benefits identified by BTGS included:

20% improvement in productivity from home working compared to office-based workers
reduced absenteeism
greater staff retention – especially among women returning from maternity leave
recruitment benefits for workers attracted by flexible working policies
reduction in office property costs.
BTGS is building a

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Tags: Carbon Emissions, Carbon Footprint, emissions reduction