Overcoming the Tyranny of Distance: A Green Approach
A couple of years ago, my lifestyle seemed to necessitate my taking at least one international or domestic flight each year. I had stopped using a car, but somehow I hadn’t faced up to the fact that each flight added up to a few months’ worth of typical car travel. My carbon footprint was a few sizes too big for my feet, and my partner Barbara and I decided to take action.
We decided not to take any flights unless:
1. We could truly not find other ways of connecting with people, and
2. Not flying would cause an important business or personal relationship to deteriorate.
Those criteria can be subjective, but when we take an honest, calm approach to the decision-making process, we find we can discern whether a trip is necessary.
We live in New Zealand, a country about as far away as can be from most other
countries, besides Australia. Unless one has the time and money for long boat trips, there’s no way out but to fly. So, have we missed out by limiting flying to absolutely unavoidable excursions? Have we become recluses? Has our business deteriorated? Perhaps surprisingly, given the fact that Barbara’s family and many of our friends, clients and potential clients still live in the U.S., the answers are no, no, and no. Finding alternative ways of interacting opened up possibilities for us. Putting it a bit dramatically, we discovered how to transcend the limitations of physical distance.
Part of that involved adopting some simple, free communication technologies. Using Skype, googletalk and other software, we have more contact with friends and family members than we did when we were living a couple of states away from them in the U.S. Previously, long-distance charges from the U.S. to New Zealand were a factor for some of our contacts. Now anyone who also has Skype or other compatible software can call us for free, and Skype also lets us call any phone for a miniscule charge.
I’m not suggesting there’s any real substitute for physical human contact, but when we looked at things realistically, we had to admit that when we visited friends and family, they were generally so busy that we were only able to spend short periods of time relaxing and hanging out. Now, we communicate when we have quality time to spend together. With a couple of mouse clicks, we get to see each other as we talk, which further diminishes the sense of distance.
Part of what we do involves teaching classes, and going down the online path opened up unexpected benefits in that part of our business. Previously, running a workshop in the U.S. was a daunting proposal. To cover travel costs, we had to invest much time and money in marketing to attract as many students as possible. We can now run classes for even a couple of students at a time in the U.S. and other localities, because the online services we use keep overheads low, and we get the same return for fewer participants. We can be eating breakfast in the kitchen and 5 minutes later be on the computer starting a class, which makes for efficient use of time.
Feedback has been that people find our on-line classes convenient, and want us to develop them further. We’re investing in some screen-sharing tools being developed by some of our tech friends, so we can enhance this part of our business.
For our non-broadband clients, we do phone conference classes. There are a number of conferencing services available. Participants either call a 1-800 number or make a long-distance call. There is also some slick corporate software for phone and video conferencing, which is a more professional looking (and more expensive) alternative.
Don’t get us wrong, we think it would be a dreadful misuse of technology if we forgot to interact with the people around us. Our business still depends largely on the relationships we build by being physically present in our community. Communication technology has helped free up time to engage more deeply in that community. Indeed, we think the quality of our business and personal relationships here has improved. People seem to think of us as true locals now that we ended our yearly overseas travel ritual, and that builds trust and a sense of reliability. Choosing this more sustainable pathway has been a good business strategy for us.
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Glen Crowther - Ecoist
Born and bred in New Zealand, Glen completed a Bachelor of Property Administration from the University of Auckland in 1986. After working in that field for a few years, he pursued an interest in environmental education during the early 1990s. This incorporated the production of educational materials and networking with schools, businesses, energy companies, government departments and the wider community about energy systems and climate change. He thoroughly enjoyed this work and it led to a deeper exploration of the concept of sustainability.
In 1996, Glen began studying Ayurveda, the ancient holistic health system from India. He completed training in this field at the foremost institute of Ayurveda in the U.S.A. and was granted a degree equivalency of a Bachelor of Science in Ayurveda. This led to employment in the U.S. as a technical editor of Ayurveda textbooks and publicity materials. Glen returned to New Zealand in 2003 with his U.S. wife Barbara. They run a small business with a focus on Ayurveda lifestyle consulting and sustainable approaches to personal and community well-being. In addition, Glen has continued working as editor for a number of books and publications
Tags: air travel, online communication, Skype