Stefan Eriksson, 2019-12-18
Young UN demands travel free meetings – what is your organization's position?
Follow the lead of Young UN; demand that your organization establish travel free meetings when possible. It might be easier than you think. Check out our strategy list on how to make it happen.
In September 2019, the Young UN: Agents for Change network sent an open letter to the UN Secretary-General on climate action in the UN system. The network urged the Secretary-General to several measures within the organization, leading the way on climate action. One of them is to replace travel with remote meetings.
Justification should be provided for all travel explaining why a remote meeting or training is not possible. Invest in effective remote conferencing technology in every UN duty station and cost-share such facilities across UN entities. Where technology is not yet available at the country level, allow for global meetings to be joined through regional hubs.
In Sweden, where we at Konftel have our headquarters, remote meetings are no unfamiliarity to the authorities. For instance, the Swedish transport administration (Trafikverket) has been commissioned by the Government to lead and coordinate the project REMM (Virtual Meetings in Public Agencies) since 2011. Now, the initiators behind REMM want to introduce similar, climate-smart meetings in the EU.
Why not follow the lead of Young UN, demanding your organization to start replacing travel for physical meetings with travel free ditto? With the right technical equipment, distance meetings can save you both time and a lot of money. Along with being climate-friendly, of course.
Follow our ten easy tips on how to change your meeting culture with this strategy list
