How Green is Voip?
Every day we see our competitors selling their new Voip system as a greener alternative to traditional telephone systems. We did some digging to figure out if Voip really is a better alternative to traditional voice solutions when it comes to carbon footprints.
When we use Voip systems, we rely on multiple servers to transmit the call. These servers are hosted in data centers that need to be constantly powered and cooled using an immense amount of power.
The energy consumption of traditional voice methods are fractional in comparison. While the network would have been incredibly carbon intensive to build, its ongoing emissions are less.
When you upgrade to Voip, you'll likely need new hardware. New handsets, new switches, new cabling. New materials that require a variety of scarce minerals that need to be obtained by mining and other high-emission activities.
It's not all bad news though, Voip systems typically require far less hardware than a traditional PBX and have handsets that can be upgraded and maintained remotely which dramatically increases their shelf life.
The biggest environmental benefit offered by Voip is video conferencing and collaboration tools which results in significantly less travel. Although video calls use far more bandwidth and data center resource than a voice call, the fuel saving of most meetings would be enough to consider this a win. Let's not forget that these collab tools make remote working a breeze.
Did you know?
Eleven Comms offers the only Carbon-Negative Voip system in the UK. We achieve this through carbon neutral hosting and gold standard carbon offsets.
Conclusion
Most voip systems can be updated, managed and supported remotely. So, less engineers travelling to sites and less telecoms equipment ending up in landfill thanks to the increased shelf life.
Voip emits more Co2 day to day but as data centers become more efficient this is likely to drop considerably.
Video conferencing and collaboration tools are not new or exclusive to Voip and with Microsoft Teams being a good carbon neutral option it's tough to consider this a direct environmental benefit of Voip.
Day to day, Voip probably emits more carbon but we should see long term benefits of the equipment lasting longer and reduced travel but for now the difference remains negligible.
So, is Voip "Greener"? Well technically we'd have to say no. Not yet.
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