Travel less, skip the hassles, and help the environment

With the cost of fuel skyrocketing and environmental concerns escalating, it seems that we should all take matters into our own hands.

While I totally believe in face-to-face interaction and traveling to meet with customers, I have taken many trips that, in hindsight, could have been handled just as well using collaboration/communication technology. Therefore, I have set a personal goal to reduce my travel by 20 percent. That amounts to simply not taking one trip in five. While I will still travel more than most, I intend to travel significantly less.

The technology surrounds us to collaborate more effectively and (quite the opposite of air travel) it is improving every day. Technology allows us to have highly interactive conversations and share more and more rich information. So assuming that we can leverage technology, what is the downside? Let's see, I save tons of time not being in security lines, not walking aimlessly through airports, not eating standing up and not having my knees jammed into the seat in front of me. And I reduce my personal-carbon footprint at the same time.