The study is not only an excellent illustration of the tangible benefits of promoting telecommuting, but also how IT can promote productivity and collaboration.

The results of the study make a compelling case for deploying “collaboration technology” and promoting telecommuting. The bottom line is that telecommuting creates value through benefits such as increased productivity, employee satisfaction and reduced carbon emissions.

A quick overview of the study:

• The objective of the study was to “evaluate the social, economic and environmental impacts associated with telecommuting at Cisco.”
• The study was global and consisted of surveying Cisco employees
• Key measurements of the study included:
– Weekly commuting patterns
– Round-trip commuting patterns
– Weekly telecommuting patterns
– Collective impacts of telecommuting such as greenhouse gas emissions and distance traveled
– Importance of telecommuting to Cisco “telecommuters”
– Comparison of work patterns (home vs. office)

A summary of the results:

• The positive aspects cited by the survey respondents (in priority order):
– More flexible work schedule
– Reduced commuting time
– Better quality of life
– Saving money
– Higher productivity
– More control over life
– Reduced stress
– More time to spend with family

• The overall benefits expressed by the telecommuters:
– Equal or improved ability to communicate and collaborate with coworkers when working from home (over 82 percent)
– The timeliness of their work output improves when working at home (over 74 percent)
– The quality of work improves when working at home (over 67 percent)
– Survey respondents do not experience broadband connection issues/limitations (over 83 percent)

The bottom line is that telecommuting benefits Cisco and its employees with a tangible savings of more than $10 million in fuel costs and more than 47,000 metric tonnes of CO2e per year.

Promoting telecommuting results in improved productivity and quality of life along with tangible benefits such as reduced fuel use, reduced need for office space and reduced carbon emissions.

The impact that increased telecommuting and the use of collaboration tools (such as Cisco TelePresence) will have on work patterns and urban/suburban life is just beginning to be understood.

On a personal note, DOMANI promotes telecommuting and I expect that after this blog is released, there will be a renewed discussion to further promote our internal program.

Gone are the days when everyone had to be in the office to be considered “productive” and working.

A question for everyone, does your company promote telecommuting? If so, how does it work for you?

Tim Carey from PepsiCo (Director, Sustainability) participated on the panel and presented “Sustainability in a Recession: Keys to Performance in a Capital-Constrained Environment.”

Tim presented a very clear and concise case for aggressively pursuing a sustainability strategy in the “middle” of this economic downturn.

His key theme was that during the recession it is essential (yes, essential) to leverage sustainability to drive innovation and increase resource efficiency. Why, you ask, would this be critical during a recession? Simply put, resource costs will continue to increase over time (energy costs from hydrocarbons will increase going forward) and we will come out of the recession.

So, how do you want your company to come out of this recession? Will you be tied to a costly supply chain lulled into thinking that current cheap fuel costs excuse inefficiencies, high material use in packaging, still tied to high carbon energy sources such as coal and the wasteful use of water (while water is relatively cheap, take note of increasing stakeholder interest in how companies use water)?

Now is the time to “dematerialize” packaging, increase energy and water efficiencies and move towards a low carbon footprint on an enterprise-wide and product basis.

The bottom line is that you want to be the low cost producer (low Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)) compared to your competitors when the costs of resources increase (which they will going forward).

So, what is PepsiCo doing now? Some recent public announcements:

Bottles – The new “Eco-Fina” water bottle uses 50 percent less plastic than traditional designs with a half-liter bottle that weighs in at just 10.9 grams. 
 “Eco-Fina” will save 75 million pounds of plastic a year according to estimates by PepsiCo. In addition, the company has eliminated the cardboard base pads from its Aquafina 24-packs which will result in a savings of 20 million pounds of corrugate by 2010.

Another clever move is that PepsiCo is manufacturing the water bottles at the purification centers where they are filled in an effort to reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transport.

Shipping – Quaker, Gatorade and Tropicana will be shipped exclusively on lightweight, recyclable plastic pallets as a way to reduce fuel costs. In addition, the pallets are tagged with bar codes to enable tracking throughout the supply chain.
Vending machines – PepsiCo launched a pilot program in the Washington, D.C.-area to test “green” or “climate-friendly” vending machines. The Pepsi Bottling Group (PBG) is placing 30 energy-efficient Pepsi-Cola vending machines in high-consumer traffic areas with machines comprised of all-natural refrigeration systems. The machines apparently use less energy and generate 12 percent less GHG emissions than current vending machines.

Water - PepsiCo India is changing all of the labels on Aquafina, its bottle water brand, to announce that by next year, PepsiCo India will be a “positive water balance company.” Apparently the labels will urge consumers to partner with the company to “use water wisely so it could be enjoyed by future generations.” In addition, water usage in its manufacturing plants has been reduced by over 60 percent, and that has saved 2 billion liters of water in the process.

Late last year, I was repeatedly asked if sustainability initiatives would continue during an economic downturn or would they be viewed as expendable.

PepsiCo and other companies such as GE, Wal-Mart and Coca Cola are answering this question.