How Does the iLinc Green Meter Work?

The iLinc Green Meter (Patent Pending) is a unique feature found only in iLinc software. The meter makes calculations based on each Web conferencing participant's location and the standard emission rates for cars or planes.

Specifically, the meter determines the public IP address of each attendee in a session, as well as that of the host, and identifies locations based on longitude and latitude coordinates. For each participant, the meter then performs a series of steps. It compares each participant's location to the host's location. If the IP address of a participant matches that of the host, the CO2 savings are set to zero. If the distance is less than 200 miles, it applies an automobile CO2 calculation. If greater than 200 miles, the meter uses an airplane CO2 calculation, even considering short versus long-haul flight variables. Finally, the iLinc Green Meter tallies CO2 amounts for each participant and stores the data for each session.

Not only can an individual see his or her immediate impact on the environment, a team can tally its total, as can an entire organization. In fact, iLinc's customers saved over one billion pounds of carbon emissions from harming the environment as of August 2007. As more and more customers use the iLinc Green Meter, the savings will only grow.

Coming in May 2008, the next-generation iLinc Green Meter will provide even more value. It will measure not only the carbon savings, but also the monetary impact of replacing travel with online collaboration. iLinc administrators will have the ability to showcase the metric(s) that matter to their organization, whether that's carbon, cash, or both.

Green Stats: How CO2 Adds Up in the Real World On average: A full size car (18 - 29 mpg) emits 12,000 pounds of CO2 yearly. An SUV (10 - 18 mpg) emits 20,000 pounds of CO2 yearly. A roundtrip flight between NYC and LA emits 2,000 pounds of CO2. A medium-size house (1500 - 2499 square feet) produces 27,500 pounds of CO2 yearly. An ordinary American adds 23 tons of CO2 to the atmosphere every year! Statistics from Carbonfund.org.