Senate Bill Focused on Telecommuting for SMBs

The U. S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship has introduced legislation, sponsored by Sen. John Kerry and Sen. Olympia Snow, to help small business improve energy efficiency through the SBA (Small Business Administration). The bill includes a number of programs designed to help small business operate with greater energy efficiency or transition to renewable energy sources. There's also a program for the SBA to create an outreach program as well as help educate small business on the energy saving benefits of telecommuting.

Web Worker Daily has a brief blog post about the bill and a follow up posting on the Telework Exchange Online Eligibility Gizmo. The Gizmo is a questionnaire (registration required for results) is designed to help U. S. government workers determine if their jobs are suited to telework. The questionnaire can be broadly applicable though for any company, for example the question about working with classified information may as well be asking about working with intellectual property.

Of course, at WebEx we are big proponents of telecommuting as a way to save energy, save money and make workers more productive while eliminate commuting stress. Get a sense of the costs of commuting using our Carbon Calculator, it tallies time, CO2 emissions and fuel costs.

Michael Caton, Collaboration Evangelist, WebEx