History of iLinc Corporate Green Web Conferencing

The idea for the iLinc Green Meter occurred in 2007 when iLinc President and CEO, James Powers, attended an event honoring Al Gore and his environmental movement. This in-person opportunity to meet with Gore spurred Powers to consider how iLinc technology could support the global movement to reverse climate change.

Soon after, Powers created a Green Team at iLinc and tasked them with inventing a tool to quantify the environmental benefits of conducting virtual meetings. The solution to this rather challenging assignment has since had a tremendous impact on the company, its customers, and the environment.

iLinc developers began by researching ways to determine locations and measure distance between iLinc users in session utilizing IP addresses and latitude / longitude coordinates. They also analyzed public data on the carbon emissions of various modes of travel. From there, the team built formulas to calculate CO2 savings among any group of iLinc users in a single session, as well as formulas for tallying savings across a department, division, or company.

Within months, the iLinc Green Meter was launched. iLinc incorporated the invention into its Web conferencing software, so that hosted customers could begin using it immediately. In June 2007, iLinc filed for a patent on the technology. Today, all hosted customers have instant access to the iLinc Green Meter right through the product's management system. They've collectively saved more than one billion pounds of CO2 just by using iLinc.

Read on to find out how the iLinc Green Meter works »