Reduced travel can fund your entire communications solution

Before the pandemic, Swedes collectively traveled the equivalent of 20,000 round trips to the moon – just to attend meetings. Only one in four external meetings was digital. But how does it look today? And what impact can this have on the climate, the economy, and workplace equality? Let’s dive into Cisco’s latest report.

“We’re going to be the best in the world”

Before we start, a quick clarification:

• Meeting travel refers to physical travel to and from meetings, such as by car or plane.
• Travel-free meetings refer to digital meetings, such as video or phone calls.

Sweden’s national digitalization goal is to become the best in the world at using the opportunities of digitalization. We’re already global leaders in several areas — with a tech-savvy population, strong digital infrastructure, and forward-thinking companies and institutions.

But when it comes to travel-free meetings… well, let’s just say there’s room for improvement.

Even though travel-free meetings require some investment, they are still among the most cost-effective, simple, and high-impact measures a company can take.

The numbers speak for themselves

According to Cisco’s report, Swedish companies spend an average of SEK 22,000 per employee per year on meeting travel — compared to SEK 12,000 in the Netherlands. A pretty shocking number considering the technology available today.

Let’s break that down:

If a company has 15 employees, their annual meeting travel costs add up to around SEK 330,000 — and that’s before accounting for lost working hours.

If that same company invested in lynes, their annual cost would be around SEK 27,000 — saving SEK 303,000 simply by replacing traditional travel with digital meetings.

The environmental and social impact

One of the most fascinating findings in the report highlights what would happen if we replaced just 15–30% of meeting travel with digital meetings.

Besides saving a ton of money, Sweden could reduce CO₂ emissions by half a million tons — the equivalent of around 200,000 round trips to Thailand or the entire annual emissions of Andorra.

And that’s not all.

“Equality would also improve if more people could join meetings based on relevance and competence rather than travel availability.”

Today, men travel almost twice as much as women for business. This could mean women are missing out on meetings they should be part of — not due to lack of competence, but because they’re more conscious about travel and hold more digital meetings.

So, by increasing digital meetings, we not only save money and emissions — we also promote gender equality in Swedish workplaces.

The benefits of travel-free meetings

• Lower carbon emissions
• Huge cost savings
• Improved gender equality

In summary

The potential reduction in emissions and costs is staggering if we start replacing meeting travel with digital alternatives.

The fact that one employee’s annual travel costs could nearly fund a full communication solution for 15 people should make any decision-maker pause.

And if it also helps build a more equal workplace — that’s just the cherry on top.

So, if you’re interested in saving money, reducing your climate impact, and promoting equality, we’d love to talk.

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