Alternatives to flying for business travel

Greener alternatives are out there, it's just a matter of finding them, and it might be worth checking out your options before your next business trip.

Making personal connections is integral to business success, it can be argued, but does this necessarily require multiple days lost to travelling, when you can make an equally strong connection via video conferencing on Skype or something similar?

It's certainly a position that many companies are taking, but business travel has become so ingrained in the culture that it's hard to imagine doing it another way. A recent study by Concur revealed that a whopping 98 per cent of surveyed sales executives believe that face-to-face contact is still essential, and 86 per cent maintained that more business trips would make them "significantly better" at their jobs.

Skype

If business travel is really still as necessary as companies believe, then cutting the frequency of air travel could potentially help reduce costs and halt some of the damage we're doing to the world. Greener alternatives are out there, it's just a matter of finding them, and it might be worth checking out your options before your next business trip.

Caroline Preece

Caroline has been writing about technology for more than a decade, switching between consumer smart home news and reviews and in-depth B2B industry coverage. In addition to her work for IT Pro and Cloud Pro, she has contributed to a number of titles including Expert Reviews, TechRadar, The Week and many more. She is currently the smart home editor across Future Publishing's homes titles.

You can get in touch with Caroline via email at caroline.preece@futurenet.com.