"Natural resources must not be wasted. If there is an opportunity to preserve nature, it should be used. Thanks to IT, humanity is able to significantly reduce its consumption of hydrocarbons — and without denying itself anything," Anton Marrero, Honorary President of Softline, said during the seminar "IT: the environmental aspect".
Softline has been working in the environmental sector for more than 10 years, developing greenhouse gas emission accounting systems, electronic document management and enterprise automation systems. Anton Marrero noted that virtually every software product developed by Softline has a positive effect on saving natural resources. For example, Softline has calculated that producing 100 kilograms of paper requires cutting down one tree that takes 20–40 years to grow. Meanwhile, supplying one large organisation (for example, a bank) with paper requires cutting down 10 trees. Nationwide, according to various estimates, record keeping consumes at least 2,000 tonnes of paper, or 20,000 trees — a small forest.
Another example Anton Marrero cited is the greenhouse gas emission accounting system developed by Softline. Under the terms of the Kyoto Protocol, the money raised from selling the surplus is spent on modernising production, so the end result is a reduction in harmful emissions. However, the most promising technology, one that will have a colossal impact on saving natural resources and protecting the environment, is Softline's remote work system. It is a set of hardware and software solutions that allow people to earn money without leaving home.
Anton Marrero noted that such systems are popular all over the world today. For example, in Spain one in six employees can already work from home, and in Germany one in three companies offers its employees this option. In Australia, even civil servants work from home. And the quality of work does not suffer at all.
According to Anton Marrero, working from home is not only more cost-effective for a company but also much more convenient for the employee. In particular, Anton says, it saves commuting time, reduces fuel consumption, and there is no need to pay public transport fares or for parking. "I would particularly stress that in a home environment stress levels fall, productivity rises, and people in creative professions get more room for their work," says Anton Marrero. But the most important thing is that a reduced need to travel by public and private transport will cut its use and, consequently, exhaust emissions by several million tonnes of harmful gases a year.
A study conducted by the Spanish foundation Masfamilia states: "For Spain, moving employees to remote work will save 583 million litres of fuel a year." In addition, carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere will be reduced by 2 million tonnes. "Spain's population is comparable in size to Ukraine's. So these figures can be used as a benchmark: 583 million litres of fuel a year at UAH 11 per litre is almost UAH 6.5 billion a year. Ukraine is not a country where this money could be superfluous. Given that virtually all the petrol in our country is imported (or refined from imported oil), almost a billion dollars 'leaves' us every year. It literally goes 'down the pipe' — the exhaust pipe, of course," says Anton Marrero.
Read Anton Marrero's opinion on Korrespondent.NET: How IT helps save petrol
Softline and the Intecracy Group consortium are ready to help the state and Ukrainian businesses organise remote work systems. "The experience of the first implementations shows that this model has no particular drawbacks, especially given the development of internet networks and video telephony. I believe that the country will understand the advantages and start living differently," Anton Marrero emphasises.
Source: rtkorr
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