iLinc 'Green Meter' Enables Companies with Only Tool That Measures Environmental ROI of Web Conferencing
Web Conferencing Provider Predicts Increasing Demand for
Patent-Pending Technology That Automatically Calculates Carbon
Emissions Savings of Online Meetings
PHOENIX--(Business Wire)--
These days having a carbon savings "calculator" on your Web site
is as ubiquitous as calling your company green because you recycle
paper, but Phoenix-based Web conferencing firm iLinc (AMEX:ILC) has
taken the guesswork out of CO2 savings measurement by providing its
customers with the industry's first automatic IP address-based CO2
savings application, built inside its Web conferencing software.
The Web conferencing company's Green Meter(TM) uses a mathematical
algorithm to detect the locations of the people that are attending a
Web conference via IP address and measures the distance between the
meeting participants and the meeting leader - calculating the exact
amount of travel that is eliminated and measuring the amount of CO2
saved by meeting via Web conference rather than traveling. The program
recognizes what means of travel would commonly be used for the
distance (such as car, small aircraft, large aircraft, etc.) and keeps
a running tab of the CO2 savings and its associated environmental and
financial costs.
"It was during a lunch meeting some time ago with former Vice
President Al Gore, a family friend from Tennessee, that I had what you
might call an 'aha' moment," said James M. Powers, Jr., iLinc's
President and Chief Executive Officer. "I then immediately went back
to the office to get our product team working to develop the Green
Meter inside the iLinc Web conferencing suite to make it a reality."
Continued Powers, "We know there is a direct connection between
Web conferencing software and environmental sustainability, so in an
effort to help customers and support the worldwide movement to
counteract global warming, we developed this tool to quantify the
benefits of meeting online. A lot of Web sites have basic carbon
calculators, but the iLinc Green Meter is a much more advanced
application for measuring carbon emission savings."
One organization seeing the benefits of the iLinc Green Meter is
the State of Arizona. Across its 14 agencies currently using iLinc,
the State of Arizona has saved 300,000 pounds of carbon emissions in
the first quarter of 2008 alone.
"Web conferencing has the potential to significantly improve state
employee productivity, reduce carbon emissions, avoid transportation
costs, and increase collaboration between state and local officials in
disparate parts of the state," said Chris Cummiskey, Chief Information
Officer for the State of Arizona and Director of the Government
Information Technology Agency.
Increasing Demand
More organizations are increasing their awareness around
environmental concerns, especially when it comes to travel. In a
recent survey by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives:
-- 35 percent of respondents said their company's travel
department now is responsible for providing carbon emissions
information, up from 20 percent in 2006,
-- 36 percent reported reduced company travel as a measure for
supporting sustainability, up from 23 percent a year earlier.
According to the American Express Global Business Travel Forecast
released in late 2007, companies are expected to increase the focus on
responsible business travel practices related to the environment.
iLinc's Green Meter comes standard with iLinc version 9.0 and
includes a variety of tools to help companies monitor and report their
carbon savings. iLinc customers have saved a combined one billion
pounds of CO2 so far and that number is expected to grow exponentially
as more and more customers upgrade to the latest iLinc version.
To view and download a hi-res screen shot of the iLinc Green Meter
visit
http://www.ilinc.com/images/product/ilinc9/green-meter-in-session.jpg.
Blog: iLinc Blog
Multimedia: iLinc 'Web Conferencing Smock' Video, iLinc flickr
page
Suggested Links: Technorati Tags, Digg, iLinc's Del.icio.us page,
Post to Slashdot
About iLinc
iLinc is a leading provider of Web conferencing software and audio
conferencing solutions for highly secure and cost-effective online
meetings, presentations, and training sessions. The Company's
technology allows people in diverse locations to communicate and
collaborate online while avoiding the expense, environmental damage,
and productivity losses associated with travel. iLinc provides an
award-winning, enterprise-wide suite of Web, audio and video
conferencing solutions that can be scaled up or down to meet the needs
of any size organization. Offering the industry's most flexible
pricing models, iLinc gives organizations the power to choose an
on-premise installed, on-demand hosted, or hybrid solution--whichever
model delivers the highest ROI for the customer. iLinc is
headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, with offices in Troy, New York and
Salt Lake City, Utah.
iLinc, iLinc Communications, iLinc Suite, MeetingLinc, LearnLinc,
ConferenceLinc, SupportLinc, EventPlus, and their respective logos are
trademarks of iLinc Communications, Inc. All other company names and
products may be trademarks of their respective companies.
Sacks Public Relations
Kathy Sacks, 602-619-4444
kathy@sackspr.com
or
iLinc Communications, Inc.
Mark Yeager, 602-952-1200
myeager@ilinc.com
Copyright Business Wire 2008
