Remote work is here to stay and with it the positive impact virtual meetings and events have on the environment. In just one year’s time (April 2020 through March 2021), LogMeIn customers from around the globe contributed to avoiding as much as an estimated 63 million metric tons* of greenhouse gas emissions through their use of GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar.
Quiz Time! Do you know what that is equivalent to**?
- Taking nearly 13.8 million cars off the road for an entire year
- The energy usage for one year from 7.6 million homes
- Planting 1 billion trees
If you guessed “1, 2, or 3” you’d be right! Reducing or eliminating commutes and business travel can go a long way in making this world a bit greener!
So how exactly does joining a GoToWebinar or jumping on a GoToMeeting help our planet?
Well, the rapid shift to remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic helped offset the carbon footprint of daily commuting, regular business travel, hosting in-person company meetings, and more, by utilizing communications and collaboration technologies like GoTo and remote access and support products such as LogMeIn Central, LogMeIn Pro and Rescue.
While we all look forward for the time and place it will be safe and secure for certain face-to-face meetings, research suggests that products like GoTo, LastPass, and Rescue will continue to play an essential role in the future of work. Not only do cloud-based products like those that make up the LogMeIn portfolio maintain business continuity for customers and allow employees the flexibility to work how, where and when they want, they also help companies achieve their own sustainability goals. Even when a return to the office and business travel is safe, companies that continue to offer remote work and reduce business travel in favor of virtual events and meetings will continue to see a lasting impact on their own emission reduction goals.
Our own CEO, says, “Through the use of our products, business leaders were able to see that flexible work could and should be something that continues long after the pandemic. Not only because data shows it’s what employees want, but also because it’s what can help our environment. Sustainability is a core pillar here at LogMeIn and as restrictions begin to lift and our new normal takes shape, we, and many others, are embracing the learnings from this past year to adopt a totally new way of working that includes a hybrid approach to where we work. By reducing business travel and commutes in favor of virtual meetings and events we can make a significant and lasting impacting on the world around us.”
Reducing carbon emissions through the enablement of remote work is just one way LogMeIn is committed to global sustainability. In addition, through our Corporate Social Responsibility program, we are working toward actionable goals, including reaching Net Zero Emissions by 2030. We plan to procure certified carbon offsets and renewable energy credits (RECs) to mitigate 100% of our own operational emissions in 2020 and beyond.
In what ways are you committed to sustainability and how will you quantify your positive impact?
For more information on LogMeIn’s Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainably Efforts please visit: https://www.logmein.com/corporate-social-responsibility
* LogMeIn’s data team derived these figures by summing the distance between all meeting hosts and each participant for all GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar sessions in the first full year of the pandemic (excluding audio-only calls, which could reasonably be assumed to replace phone calls, not in-person meetings). The team then assigned each of those distances to different modes of transport using U.S. Federal Highway Administration statistics, to which the team then applied the appropriate U.S. Environmental Protection Agency emissions factor. Equivalencies were derived using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator.
**According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency