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Updated on July 12, 2021
Published on February 11, 2020
CO2 emissions avoidance was determined by the Zoom data science team, who based their calculations on the greenhouse gas emission model implemented for publicly traded UK companies in GHG reporting (gov.uk). Zoom’s methodology deviates from similar programs that overstate CO2 savings by, for example, simply aggregating pure distance calculations and multiplying them by some CO2 emissions factor. The team analyzed Zoom meetings with video on, screen sharing used, or Zoom Room or Conference Room Connector participants. Audio-only meeting participants were excluded given their usage of Zoom could be considered a phone call replacement rather than an in-person meeting replacement. The inclusion of Zoom’s conference room solutions is due to the fact that in conference rooms groups of people are typically either sharing knowledge to make collective decisions or building rapport to kickstart or nurture a working relationship, both likely scenarios for in-person engagement. The model assumed a “reasonable” cadence of business travel. After categorizing business trips saved based on analyzing the usage above, the Zoom team measured the distance between participants to determine mode of transportation. They assumed that a single participant would not drive to more than one location per day or fly to more than one location every two weeks. Finally, the model also accounted for the carbon emissions of Zoom meetings. The Zoom team incremental power consumption needed to 1) use devices such as laptops, 2) send data across the internet, and 3) manufacture and dispose of all conference room hardware amortized over the estimated life of each piece of hardware. Zoom applied these categories of energy consumption with actual usage data to arrive at the total cost of Zoom Meetings and the net carbon emissions saved for each customer. To learn more about how Zoom can improve your video meetings and collaboration while reducing your carbon emissions, sign up for a personalized 1-1 demo with a Zoom product specialist today!