Telepresence, video and voice communications company Polycom and international nonprofit organisation the Climate Group on Wednesday announced an initiative using technology to advance climate change solutions.

The initiative works to advance climate change solutions and accelerate a low-carbon economy, by assisting the globally dispersed organisation to improve collaboration through bi-monthly management meetings using Polycom immersive telepresence.

Climate Group COO Jim Walker explained that the use of telepresence for international management meetings, was certainly more effective than a conference call, and enabled face-to-face interaction at short notice.

With offices and members in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, and China, using Polycom’s RealPresence experience high-definition telepresence solution, meant cutting down on long distances traveled to get to meetings.

“This save a lot of time, and importantly for us, it saves a lot of carbon as well. We have been delighted with the quality of the facilities. It allows us to be a lot more effective as a global team and meet face-to-face at short notice,” added Walker.

“The ability to literally look our international colleagues in the eye as if we were all sitting around the same table has not only improved the productivity of our discussions, but has reduced the number of times a year we need to meet in person.”

According to The Climate Group’s Smart2020 report, technologies such as tele- and video-conferencing could replace between 5% and 20% of global business travel.

“It was a pleasure to facilitate these management sessions for the Climate Group and to let them experience first-hand a very natural ‘across the table’ meeting atmosphere,” said Polycom CEO Bob Hagerty.

“Polycom immersive telepresence provides an ability for people to work together face-to-face regardless of location, and is having a profound impact on the way meetings are carried out,” he added.

Polycom telepresence solutions are part of the telecoms industry’s architecture for enterprise-wide visual communication that unites telepresence; high-scale desktop video; multipoint video infrastructure; network, system and conference management; and also supporting services.

The Climate Group works internationally with government and business leaders to advance smart policies and technologies to cut global emissions and accelerate a low-carbon economy.

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