SAN JOSE Calif., April 21, 2008 - As a part of an ongoing effort to help its customers to take steps toward becoming greener, WebEx, now part of Cisco, today announced a challenge as a part of its 'Plant-A-Tree with WebEx' program. From April 21 through May 31, in addition to planting a tree for each free trial, for every 100 free trials taken Cisco WebEx will plant an additional 100 trees. The challenge is part of Cisco WebEx's ongoing efforts to help business reduce their impact on the environment by reducing the need for travel.
Launched in April 2006, the 'Plant-A-Tree with WebEx' program is an easy way to experience the business productivity benefits of web collaboration while helping offset global carbon dioxide emissions. To have a tree planted, simply go to www.webex.com/go/zerocarbon to sign up for the special WebEx Meeting Center free trial, hold two business meetings online and WebEx will plant a tree in your name through Carbonfund.org. Thousands of trees have already been planted.
"The program is just one aspect of our efforts to educate and encourage companies to become greener and more productive," said Joe Schwartz, director of marketing operations for Cisco WebEx. "This Earth Day, we hope everyone will join the challenge and take advantage of the opportunity to help the environment one meeting at a time."
WebEx meetings are a productive alternative to business travel which is a leading contributor to harmful carbon dioxide emissions. A person who flies just 30,000 miles a year puts more than 19,100 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Replacing even a small number of those trips with web meeting can dramatically reduce carbon dioxide emissions. For example:
- Using WebEx instead of one person flying from New York to London for a team meeting would save 2,690 pounds of carbon dioxide
- Using WebEx instead of two people traveling from Chicago to San Francisco for a sales presentation would save 4,696 pounds of carbon dioxide
- Using WebEx for a training session with 12 participants flying from Dallas to San Francisco would save 22,377 pounds of carbon dioxide
Cisco is committed to a high level of environmental responsibility in its business operations, culture, products and customer solutions. Cisco believes that technology can transform how the world approaches its environmental challenges and its vision is to combine the power of innovation with collaboration to create the most sustainable model for addressing global climate change. Utilizing collaboration technologies to reduce business travel and its impact on the environment is the focus of Cisco's "Carbon to Collaboration" initiative, created in September of 2007 as part of the company's involvement in the Clinton Global Initiative. By investing in collaboration technologies across the company and encouraging employees to travel less, Cisco is working to reduce carbon emissions from air travel by 10% and to increase the overall productivity of its workforce.
To learn more about how to work green join WebEx's Green Business eSummit on April 23, 2008.