Many organizations are cutting back on travel and leveraging unified communications to enhance their ability to meet and collaborate in real-time no matter where in the world the participants might be. Granted, most are doing so for purely fiscal reasons rather than environmental altruism. Travel is expensive and the economy is hurting many companies. But, the result is the same.

The GreenBiz.com blog though points out that there is still significant room for improvement. They cite “concerns about effectiveness of the technology; limited access to bandwidth and equipment; weak vendor incentives to push large-scale use; misalignment of user incentives and; a lack of strategic impetus in many organizations; and poor information about the benefits” as factors behind the slow adoption of these technologies.

The combined message then is this: we are headed in the right direction, but we have a ways to go and we could be going faster. Unified communications helps organizations operate more efficiently and save money in a variety of ways. As a bonus to the benefits inherent in unified communications, it also reduces carbon emissions and helps save the planet. Seems like a win-win.