Web and audio conferencing software company iLinc Communications says that customers, partners and employees participating in its iReduce program have saved a combined total of one billion pounds of CO2 by avoiding business travel.

North Carolina-based Global Knowledge Training calculates that it prevents more than 4.4 million pounds of CO2 from entering the environment each month using iLinc. To put this into perspective, every 20 pounds of CO2 equals burning one gallon of gasoline. This means that Global Knowledge’s iLinc usage equates to saving more than 200,000 gallons of gasoline a month.

The iLinc Web conferencing software calculates how much CO2 emissions are saved for every individual that uses the iLinc product through a feature called the iLinc Green MeterT.  By detecting the locations of the people that are attending the Web meeting and measuring the distance between the meeting participants and the meeting leader, the program measures how much travel has been eliminated.  The Meter decides what means of travel would commonly be used for the distance (such as car, small aircraft, large aircraft, etc.) and generates a CO2 emissions savings amount for both the Web meeting leader and a composite number for their entire organization.

For every iLinc customer that saves a million pounds or more of CO2 every quarter, the company says it will donate money in the customer’s name toward renewable energy sources and carbon reduction efforts. 

EDS is working with Verizon Video Conferencing to cut its carbon footprint and avoid some business travel.

British Telecom claims to have reduced its carbon footprint by 97,000 tons of CO2 per year, that’s 15 percent of its CO2 use, by using phone conferences and videoconferencing to cut back on staff travel for meetings.