LogMeIn, a leading provider of cloud-based solutions including GoTo, LastPass and Rescue, has today announced data quantifying the impact of a years’ worth of remote work on sustainability efforts around the globe. Through LogMeIn’s suite of remote work products, the company has enabled customers to effectively work safely and securely from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. In turn, the company estimates that LogMeIn contributed to avoiding as much as 63 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions through customers’ use of GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar during the first year of the pandemic (April 2020-March 2021) compared to daily commuting and business travel for company meetings.* According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, that figure is equivalent to taking nearly 13.8 million cars off the road for a year, 7.6 million homes’ energy use for one year, or one billion trees planted.
Reduced carbon emissions through the enablement of remote work is just one way LogMeIn is committed to global sustainability. Through its Corporate Social Responsibility program, the company is also continuing to work toward actionable sustainability goals, including reaching Net Zero Emissions by 2030, and to further the company’s own practices both in the office and at home as it adopts a remote-centric work policy globally. As part of that strategy, the company is procuring certified carbon offsets and renewable energy credits (RECs) to mitigate 100% of the company’s own operational emissions in 2020 and beyond.
The increased usage of LogMeIn’s products during the pandemic underscores the company’s contribution to customers working effectively from home while reducing emissions substantially. In addition to the above impact from the GoTo unified communications and collaboration (UCC) products, a usage surge was also seen across the company’s full portfolio of products, including remote access and support solutions such as LogMeIn Central, LogMeIn Pro and Rescue.
“Even as we temporarily physically distance to help bring COVID-19 under control, the digital revolution is connecting us more closely than ever and is here to stay. LogMeIn’s products, such as GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar, help to enable this work from anywhere revolution. In leveraging the impact these products can have on LogMeIn’s global community of employees, customers, and partners to improve their environmental responsibility, it demonstrates the difference a science-inspired company can make when it decides to lead,” said Jim Boyle, CEO & Founder of Sustainability Roundtable, Inc. – a shared-cost industry leadership service that assists LogMeIn with its own sustainability goals.
While there will continue to be a place for certain types of face-to-face meetings, many companies, including LogMeIn, are looking to reduce the amount of business travel and commutes for employees. This shift will help offset the time, expense and carbon footprint by utilizing technology to host virtual interactions. It is expected that products like those from LogMeIn will continue to play an essential role in maintaining business continuity and allowing employees the flexibility to work how, where and when they want, as well as to help companies achieve their own sustainability goals. Even when a return to the office and business travel is safe, companies that offer remote work and reduce business travel in favor of virtual events and meetings will continue to see a lasting impact on their own emission reduction goals.
“2020 and the early part of 2021 were full of challenges for us all, however, as a company we are immensely proud of the role we were able to play supporting organizations’ remote work needs,” said Bill Wagner, President and CEO at LogMeIn. “Through the use of our products, business leaders were able to see that flexible work could and should be something that continues long after the pandemic. Not only because data shows it’s what employees want, but also because it’s what can help our environment. Sustainability is a core pillar here at LogMeIn and as restrictions begin to lift and our new normal takes shape, we, and many others, are embracing the learnings from this past year to adopt a totally new way of working that includes a hybrid approach to where we work. By reducing business travel and commutes in favor of virtual meetings and events we can make a significant and lasting impact on the world around us.”