We have discussed the benefits of VoIP on this blog many, many times. From the traditional time and money saving benefits to more obscure benefits. But VoIP News pointed out a NEW benefit of VoIP: It is environmentally friendly. VoIP is green!
1. Carbon Emissions
VoIP lets employees work remotely. Aside from all the benefits to the worker, this is also reduces the number of drivers on the road and the resulting air pollution. This is true not only for home workers, but also for office workers that can collaborate with colleagues or customers remotely rather than driving to meet them.
2. Paper Waste
Paper was a staple of the office of yesterday, but VoIP is changing that. With all communications virtualized, there is little need for paper. From Fax over IP sending fax straight to your email, to instant messaging replacing notes passed between coworkers, to screen sharing rather than printing out a document to share.
3. Equipment Waste
Legacy systems are heavily dependent on hardware, and that hardware must be replaced each time the system is upgraded. VoIP not only reduces that extreme waste by requiring less hardware, but also by expanding and changing with the current hardware, resulting in no waste.
4. Chemical Release
Similarly, legacy systems required underground wiring that may leach chemicals into the soil. Each legacy upgrade means more wiring and more pollution. Thankfully, VoIP does not require such wiring.
5. Energy Use
Finally, VoIP requires little or no extra energy to run. As we have discussed previously {link}, VoIP uses the data network rather than a dedicated network. Most offices will have Internet anyway, so VoIP will simply use the energy from that with no extra power needed.
While VoIP is highly valuable for so many other reasons, being environmentally-friendly may be the final straw for some companies that are looking to go green.