The environmental impacts of the cloud is up for debate, with groups like Greenpeace pointing out the energy-slurping nature of data centers and other experts arguing for the greater energy efficiency of the cloud vs traditional computing. Remote work and collaboration demands a similar weighing of the scales. On one hand, think of all those car trips saved. On the other, think about all those servers quietly gobbling electricity as information flies across the globe. But is that the whole picture?

Writing for Forbes recently, Joe McKendrick asked if we’re oversimplifying the environmental case for the new way of work:

Perhaps there’s a broader perspective that needs to be taken as well. As a result of our move to an online economy, it’s possible that we’re saving more resources than we give ourselves credit for.  As many businesses are now digital, and operate virtually versus physically, there’s a potentially a significant degree of resource consumption that no longer takes place, that hasn’t been tracked.

Consider e-commerce, something that has been around in force for well over a decade now. How many physical retail stores have not been built, and do not operate, due to e-commerce?… Or consider other potential hidden benefits of the online economy. How many automobile trips and additional office space is no longer necessary due to telecommuting and remote work? How much travel is no longer necessary because of online college courses?  How many trees are no longer cut down because of electronic documents, PDFs, and collaborative solutions?  How much drilling and digging is no longer required to find resources, due to better data on seismic formations and simulations?  How much travel among insurance claims adjusters has been saved because of mobile and Internet technologies? The list could go on and on.

In addition to the under-recognized environmental benefits suggested by McKendrick, there is also the possibility that new ways of working will cause what Lisa Gansky, author of The Mesh: Why the Future of Business is Sharing, called “a fundamental shift in our relationship with stuff,” in her TED talk.

In the talk, she predicts that more and more businesses will make their money by using the Internet to give us convenient access to things rather than ownership of them. This allows for less waste as people use only what they need. (Netflix and Zipcar are examples of the concept.) And what the Internet is doing for consumers, collaboration and the cloud may do for workers and office stuff.

Rather than have a company assign me temporary ownership of “my” cube,” “my” documents and “my” software, this new way of working allows employees to dip into shared resources at will. You don’t have a single desk that’s yours, but should you need to come in and collaborate, you can sign out a collaboration pod, for example. By allowing companies to focus less on providing vast quantities of cubes and PCs and instead on providing more limited, targeted, high-quality resources, the change could decrease the environmental footprint of work.

In your opinion, will the future of work be more or less green than we generally imagine?

Image courtesy of Flickr user Office Now.

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Many web workers are fixed to their desks for large portions of the day. Working from home means physical inactivity and snacking can make maintaining a healthy lifestyle a struggle.

Nutrition for knowledge workers is an interesting area that I feel hasn’t been given much attention, so Graze comes along at the right time.

Graze is best described as a “snack subscription,” a little like Netflix, but with snack boxes, rather than DVDs, arriving in the mail. So how does it work?

• Sign up for a twice-weekly snack box, priced at £2.99 ($4.50) each. The service currently offers five pre-selected boxes (the choices are “eatwell,” “energy,” “wellbeing,” “preworkout” and “postworkout”) as well as the option of custom boxes.
• Each box is delivered by first-class mail on days of your choosing.
• You rate the items you receive at the Graze web site to fine-tune your taste profile. The company currently stocks 137 healthy food items, ranging from fresh fruit portions and nuts, to savory snacks, seeds and olives.
• Subsequent boxes are tailored for your taste profile, based on your ratings and preferences for suggested items you’d like to try.

The online portion of the service is well-designed, with a minimum of fuss in ordering and rating items. Of the two boxes I’ve received so far, the quality of items has been great, although the boxes are quite small. Graze is equally sublime and absurd. There’s a part of me that’s thinking that people should get off their butts and go buy some food, but equally, there’s a problem of food literacy in the UK and services like Graze could help educate people about healthier options.

I’d really like to see Graze offer “brain food” mixes for knowledge workers with erratic working patterns and generally sedentary lives, but with jobs requiring high degrees of focus and concentration.  In fact, if there was a Graze for sushi, I’d be all over it!

Graze is offering new customers a free box and 50 percent off their second box. Just use the code Z5287VX when ordering.

I’m genuinely interested in the nutritional impact of such services and more broadly how people try to stay healthy with an untethered lifestyle. Do let us know your thoughts on this (and, of course, what you think of Graze!)

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This post isn’t about praising Google, rather merely using them  as an example of good customer service.  Google is a large corporation with thousands of employees focused thousands of products/initiatives.  Yet, they take the time to reach out their customer base to enhance their products and gain feedback from users.

In another example, Netflix has experimented with online customer service but has recently launched an effort to handle customer service requests over the phone.  According to the IndyStar newspaper, online retail outlets rank higher in customer service satisfaction than brick and mortar stores.

We all have customers, whether we are freelancers who have to consult with clients on a project or every-day employees who have to keep in contact with teammates and bosses.  How do you keep customer service at a high level when you’re located hundreds if not thousands of miles away?  The key is communication.  In fact sometimes it might mean over-communication and dialogue.

Luckily web workers have cheap (if not free) tools such as email and VoIP to help us keep in touch with our customers.  Largely good customer service just requires dedication to “reach out” to your stakeholders to seek feedback and build trust.

How do you ensure good customer service to your “customers”?  Which tools to you employ to accomplish this goal?

(photo credit: Flickr user striatic)

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