Contact centers could be the key enabler in corporations' efforts to reduce the environmental impact of business, according to the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI), now in its 25th year.

No doubt, green is red hot. Unfortunately, all the noise that individuals and businesses are making about their half-hearted efforts to be environmentally friendly is its own form of pollution. Going green seems to be more about "look at me" than "look what we need to do." True, some individuals and corporations do a lot in the way of conserving resources and energy, and those efforts are deserving of some recognition; but the truth is, all the measures that people and businesses are now taking - or, in many cases, merely say they are taking - to reduce their carbon footprint are the sort of measures that we should have been taking (and have been advised to take by environmental experts) for decades.

Experts agree that it's time to move beyond the politics and PR of environmentalism, and get down to what can and needs to be done. As a contact center professional, you may be thinking that a green initiative should be led by C-level execs. Or perhaps you are thinking that since the contact center doesn't pump out pollution or consume energy like manufacturing plants do, going green doesn't really pertain to your area of the business. But going green is everybody's responsibility, and there are myriad things a contact center can do in that regard.