Go Green with Virtual Meetings and Web Conferencing

Find tools and tips for greening your nonprofit through TechSoup's GreenTech Initiative, where social benefit organizations can share and learn more about technology choices that can help to reduce our overall impact on the environment.

Nonprofits and libraries typically have pretty tight budgets. But, they still may have board members, local chapters, funders, and offices spread around the country or world, not to mention conferences, trainings, and other learning opportunities to keep on the cutting edge of their field. Despite the desire one might have to travel to every event or meeting to be face-to-face, it's just not possible with tight nonprofit budgets and costs of travel becoming more expensive.

Why Go Green?

Aside from the pocketbook reasons, travel also has one other huge and ever-growing concern - the carbon costs to the environment. One 4,000 kilometer (2,500 mile) flight for one person emits 760 pounds of CO2 - which is equivalent to 5% of a US home's electricity use for one year. Not to mention the money out of your pocket for that pricey plane, train, bus ticket, or tank of gas. Sometimes traveling for work is unavoidable. Other times, though, new and emerging technologies for virtual meetings or Web conferences can save your organization or library's budget as well as the environment. You can leverage these computer technologies to reduce your organization's travel costs as well as reduce CO2 emissions.

You might ask, "what's the damage from all this travel?" or "what difference will one trip make?" and to find the answer for your particular travel needs, you can calculate the carbon cost of past or future flights with the Terrapass Carbon Footprint Calculator or the Climate Care/Lonely Planet Calculator to see how it all adds up. The EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator translates CO2 usage (in tons) to equivalencies like barrels of oil used or percentage of a home's electricity use for one year to give you an idea of just how much those cross-country flights cost the Earth.

So, how can virtual meetings help your organization lower costs and reduce environmental damage at the same time?

How Do Online Meetings Work?

Virtual meetings and online conferencing services provide live or "synchronous" interactive meetings in which each participant sits at their own computer and is connected to other participants via the Internet. There's also usually an option to record or archive a virtual meeting, so even if your schedule doesn't work with the time the event is held live, you can still check back at a later point to see how the meeting went, learn about the resources shared, listen to speakers, or view slides and demonstrations.

The software for a virtual meeting can be either a downloaded application on each attendees' computer or a Web-based application where the attendees enter a URL to enter the conference. These can be anything from low-cost, purely Internet and phone-based conferencing services like ReadyTalk to more complex multimedia applications like Webex, which allow virtual workgroups to use the Internet and webcams to see each others' faces on their monitors, hear their voices on computer speakers, deliver presentations, edit files, and collaborate on whiteboards. Microsoft Communicator is another robust tool that allows for online collaboration and conferencing that includes voice, video, chat, instant messaging, desktop sharing, and other features. ReadyTalk and Microsoft Communicator are both available to eligible nonprofits and public libraries through TechSoup Stock.

We Are Living in a Virtual World

Another option that's growing in use and popularity is employing virtual online 3D worlds like Second Life to have participants create "avatars" (an online digital persona) to literally hold a live meeting in a virtual location - or sim - where you can see, talk to, and engage with other avatars virtually using chat and voice features, as well as physical gestures. TechSoup's Nonprofit Commons (NPC) holds weekly meetings for nonprofits in Second Life. More than 70 nonprofits and social benefit organizations use the "free office space" provided by three different NPC sim locations in Second Life and hold regular meetings to help support one another, share ideas, and create a community for effective collaboration.

EcoCommons is another virtual location in Second Life designed specifically for environmental organizations. Developed by TechSoup's Nonprofit Commons team in partnership with OneWorld.net and OneClimate Island, EcoCommons provides a network for environmentally-focused nonprofits to promote awareness, community-building, and environmental education efforts in the virtual world and beyond. Members can host virtual meetings, lectures, and other events by tapping into a thriving, existing virtual community of early adopters and technologists. Individuals and organizations around the world can connect through EcoCommons, while also reducing their carbon footprint by eliminating the need to travel to a physical meeting place. For example, in 2007, the OneClimate Island project mentioned above met in Second Life in conjunction with the real-world UN Climate Summit being held in Bali. Participants from around the world were able to participate in live-streaming video and press conferences from the real conference; all without needing to leave the comfort of their own homes or offices.

Another nice thing about many online conferencing tools and virtual spaces is that it often costs nothing to try them out. Wander in to Second Life and create an avatar, participate in one of the free TechSoup Talks! webinars to experience what they're like and see how the ReadyTalk tool works, or download a free trial version or demo of the tool that interests you. Trying them out costs little to nothing and may result in huge money savings to your organization by reducing your need to travel to engage with your supporters and remote staff more effectively.

Whether your organization just needs to save some money, lower your carbon footprint, or both, online conferencing tools and virtual spaces can provide lively meeting opportunities to share ideas with your constituents or board members, "attend" conferences, conduct trainings for your supporters, and get work done without ever leaving the office (or your home).