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Consultants go green

By TJ (06-09-2007)
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Learning and Development News - Consultants go green

Small businesses in general are the target of regular advice and guidance from all kinds of sources exhorting them to adopt green habits. They’re also often accused of lagging behind in adoption of technology – something that is often said to affect the country’s overall productivity and ability to compete.

Targeting the 5000 plus independent consultants and advisors on its database, Skillfair Ltd, a virtual meeting place that connects consultants and clients within the business and IT sectors, ran a survey to find out just how wasteful these particular small businesses really are.

The results revealed that 77% of respondents work from a home office, spending an average of 3 days a week there.  What's more, they are keen to pass on the benefits of flexible working – the 60% who employ staff use a mixture of freelancers, associates and permanent employees, the majority of whom also work from home or from their own business premises.

These businesses are highly dependent on technology of all kinds. Use of PCs, broadband, teleconferencing and company websites is ubiquitous with an average 4 computers per business. There was a high take up of newer technical innovations.  The figures for regular use of new technologies are:

  • Blog 58%
  • Skype/Internet Phone 90%
  • Web conferencing 65%
  • Social networking 86%
  • Collaboration tools 94%
  • Contact Management 89%

The combination of home-working and use of technology means that the average business miles driven was a relatively modest 6500. While the average number of miles flown is quite high at 3000, this was affected by a relatively small number of globe-trotters who took pains to point out that they purchase carbon offsets to compensate! Less high flying businesses make extensive use of the trains with an average mileage of 2300.

One of the benefits of running any small business is that you have the power to make decisions for yourself, rather than waiting for the organisation to change. The consultants make good use of energy efficiency practices such as low energy bulbs (67%), recycling paper and toner cartridges (85%), turning equipment off at night (84%). And every consultant had even more ideas on how to save more energy in future – from putting wind turbines on the roof, stopping their children turning the PC back on or convincing their clients that a web-conference will do the job!

In fact , it seems the only thing stopping consultants from becoming greener and more wired up is the needs of their clients – and their families – these small businesses really do care about the environment and have the technical know-how to make sure they do their bit.

 

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