Has Zoom ever helped you avoid driving somewhere? Have you opted to attend a virtual conference that you might have attended in-person in the past? Ever watched a video posted by a referral partner that helped you remember them and refer them to someone later on?

You may not have meant to, but you might be saving the environment when you opt for video!

It’s estimated that replacing in-person events with virtual meetings saves 94% of the carbon emissions! 🤯A one hour Zoom meeting with 6 participants releases 0.05 KG of carbon dioxide. Driving a single mile releases 0.348 KG of carbon dioxide on average. So if 6 people drive even just 5 miles each way to attend a meeting, they’ll produce 417 TIMES as much CO2. Woah.

The global events industry produces around 10% of total worldwide carbon emissions. That’s comparable to the whole United States! Attending just 1 event virtually each year instead of flying to attend in-person could have a MASSIVE impact.

What about other kinds of video? Where else can video reduce your carbon footprint?

Do you attend networking events? I’m not here to tell you to stop, but what might happen if you incorporated videos into that effort?

Attending regular networking events helps us stay top of mind with our referral partners. Putting videos on Facebook or LinkedIn can have the same effect! In fact, video can be WAY more effective at helping you stay top of mind.

I used the exact strategy to reduce my weekly networking efforts to close to 0 while INCREASING the amount of referrals I got! The process was easy. I connected with my referral network on those social media platforms, started posting videos where I shared useful educational content, and cut back on attending in-person meetings.

The results were incredible! Because I was top of mind due to my regular video posts, I got more messages and referrals than ever. It didn’t mean I never saw those folks in-person ever again (a lot of them are friends I want to see!), but it did mean I saved probably 10 hours a week of unproductive time traveling to events, meeting people that couldn’t help me, and listening to a steady stream of pitches from other business owners.

So where can you start using video to reduce your carbon footprint? What meetings could go virtual? Which events could you opt to attend online? If we all start thinking about this we can contribute to saving the planet while growing our businesses that much faster!