How virtual reality can help in reducing pollution
Now that we are forced to stay at home, we will surely find better ways of working, without having to go to the office, by using virtual reality to reduce movement and the pollution it creates. It will develop a sense of trust that we never had towards our collaborators and that prevented us from making rapid progress in the development of the business. In our culture it is difficult to accept that a person is productive even if we do not see them; the belief has been held that “the employee is only productive if they are in the company building, with their supervisor watching them from 8 to 6”. The reality is that work can be balanced with life, but it does not necessarily have to be done Monday through Friday for eight continuous hours. Many roles can be done in blocks of hours that are combined with “home school” time, housework and rest. Each person is productive at different times that can accommodate multiple obligations.
Fuel consumption will be reduced, air pollution will be reduced to limits we do not yet know.
Water sources will receive less pollutants from vehicles and commercial establishments and the time spent commuting to and from work can be spent spending more time with family or self; developing those skills we put on hold many years ago. According to a study by ScienceDirect in Switzerland, pollution is reduced by 2.7 to 4.1%, while traffic is reduced by almost 3%. By enabling telecommuting, companies will be able to integrate these benefits into their corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy; playing a key role in reducing pollution, fossil fuel consumption and contamination. When this season passes, we will discover that it is possible to telework in many roles, productivity will be increased by increased concentration and reduced interruptions. The number of motorcycles, bicycles and other vehicles will be reduced, improving the quality of traffic, as well as reducing the number of people on public transport, which will result in better quality and reduced travel times. After many years of restrictive measures against private transportation we are seeing that the most polluting are heavy and public transportation, both using diesel and gasoline, with little or inadequate maintenance.
This new reality that we are facing makes us redesign everything.
It’s the perfect opportunity to get back to basics and understand that the frenetic pace we’ve been living at is killing the planet and our own natural pace of living. According to Lifewire, if 32 million Americans start telecommuting, greenhouse gases would be reduced by 423,000 tons. There would be 613,000 gallons of gasoline saved and 9,600 fewer tons of carbon emissions. By teleworking using virtual, augmented or mixed reality, we will be increasing productivity, reducing time away from the family and improving the environment. One of these uses can be to have remote hands technical support with an expert sitting at home, saving travel time and giving instructions to people anywhere in the world to attend for example. In heavy industry, it improves the return on investment, delivering solutions to incidents almost immediately and taking advantage of the scarce knowledge resources in an optimal way.
Another way to reduce pollution comes from avoiding travel for every board meeting, partner meeting or management committee meeting. Companies generally expect people to see each other in the same room, share the same coffee and shake hands to bond. But not everyone enjoys these circumstances equally or does not want to spend two or three days traveling away from their families if they can be equally effective in a teleconference. With this virtual reality tool, knowledge can be shared, a product can be presented or big data can be analyzed thanks to virtual reality glasses. Finally, fewer people moving on the streets and between cities means fewer planes, trains and vehicles running on fossil fuels. Fewer home-work exchanges, less stress caused by wanting to get to the destination on time and all means less consumption of polluting industries.
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