Green Telecom Part VI: Verizon a telecom leader

Some of what Verizon is trying to do is pretty basic: convincing customers to power off PCs when they are not being used and to eliminate paper transactions, Kimm said.

“It’s something that is not necessarily as intuitive but has a huge environmental benefit when compare to how business-to-business transactions are done today,” he said. “It starts with paper purchase order and ends with paper check.

More than 7 million Verizon bills were viewed and paid online in 2007, saving 387 tons of paper. “And this is not just about cutting down trees to create paper — it’s all the transportation costs involved to move all that paper around,” Kimm said. “Imagine giant multinational companies; sending them a phone bill every month involves 20 cases. What’s the environmental impact of driving all that across town? So we made a big push with the Verizon Enterprise Center to give people opportunities not to send paper.”

In some ways, the green initiative is not unlike the Y2K issue, when concerns about the new millennium justified budget expenses of upgrading major computing systems, Kimm said. “The companies that really succeed are the ones that use this to make the shrewdest choices to drive productivity and make the workforce more effective,” he added.

Coming next: Verizon’s internal efforts to reduce its energy consumption

Previously: Part One of this series looked at AT&T’s green initiatives, while Part Two reported on Callis Communications’ effort to reduce power used by voice-over-IP gear. Part Three focused on iControl’s efforts to help service providers leverage home security system sales to also promote home automation and energy savings. Part Four explored new technology from Telco Systems to use solar power for data centers. Part Five looked at how Emerson Network Power is taking a comprehensive approach to reducing power consumption by its wireline and wireless customers.