Source: flightradar24.com
At UrbanVolt we have a confession to make.
In the past we were as guilty as every other company of believing that every single potential client was created equal. And that they were all worthy of our time.
These meetings typically involved car or plane journeys, and often, multiples of each.
But as UrbanVolt has grown and developed, we have all but eliminated face to face meetings and replaced them with video conferencing. This is regardless of who the client is, or the potential contract value.
Yes, we know this is not revolutionary and many companies have been availing of video conferencing for many years.
But now there is a greater urgency than ever to eliminate unnecessary travel as it is contributing to our climate crisis. Taking a long haul flight generates more carbon emissions than the average person in dozens of countries around the world produces in a whole year. A study by the Guardian found that even a short-haul return flight from London to Edinburgh contributes more CO2 than the mean annual emissions of a person in Uganda or Somalia.
So even if every company globally committed to taking one less flight, per person, per annum, that would have a huge collective impact. Factor in daily driving and you can see how CO2 emissions could start trending downwards.
And as well as saving time and money, dialling in also means you can get decision makers in different locations to the “same table”.
Hence UrbanVolt has formally committed to eliminating all face to face meetings, unless they are necessary.
The key to ensuring your move to video conferencing is a success?
Set the tone from the start. And that means refusing face to face meeting, even with the larger companies who have become accustomed to demanding that others follow their rules and processes.
We explain to every potential client – regardless of their size – that our mission is to take companies off the grid, which means a radical reduction in energy consumption. We are committed to helping our clients achieve this goal and it means we are all in, so we are eliminating all unnecessary waste such as traveling to meetings.
So if that means refusing to travel to meet a Fortune 500 company, that’s what we do. We refuse.
Without fail, every client has not only understood why we won’t travel to meet them, but they agree with our refusal to immediately jump in a car or on a plane.
While face to face meetings are necessary at some point, along with site visits, we can keep those to a minimum by being upfront about our passion and commitment to help the planet.