Why wait until 2020 for reduction in green house gases? A contributing article.

Why wait until 2020 for reduction in green house gases? A contributing article.

The legal industry has an opportunity to fuel the “virtual employment” industry by designing work-from-home programs for secretaries, transcriptionists, paralegals, accountants, and the lawyers themselves. With internet technology, pdf/paperless office, electronic filing, remote access, faxes, cell phones, case management software (networked), email, computer aided dictation/transcription software and hardware, and all the superhighway infrastructure we have, surely, we can help the environment before 2020 comes rolling down the auto maker’s factories.
I’ve been working remotely/virtually for years, being a legal technologist, I just don’t understand why law firms are changing thousands of light bulbs every day, paying millions of dollars in parking lot space for employees, and supporting the silk tie and pantyhose market unnecessarily. Can you just imagine how many barrels of foreign oil is spent congregating all the legal support people in one building or office suite after millions of them have dropped off their babies at the day care center? All those empty houses during the day - tsk tsk - when they could be set up as satellite offices with handy technology, networking, cameras and instant messaging (don’t forget the online collaboration software as well!).
I fix computers over the internet. Yesterday, I had a request from a college student in Norwich, England - got his computer all fixed up from New Mexico, no problem. I also do law office bookkeeping remotely. They fax me everything each month and I email them a Quickbooks Portable file after everything is entered and reconciled. I do payroll online and have the checks direct deposited… all this without a pair of pantyhose in sight.

I’ve designed my work priorities to test all the ways people can save gasoline usage and “save the planet”, by NOT going to work every day. Because I have a lot of different skills, I beta test all of the available technology for usefulness, reliability, and practicality. Efficiency and economic savings are a given…. whenever you don’t have to pay for office space at $130+ Sq.Ft., or office utilities, or coffee and bagels (the list goes on and on), then you have just paved the way to changing the attitudes about work and the necessity to congregate in person every day for 10 hours a day.
Happy planet, happy people, happy babies, happy futures! Sad auto makers, sad oil refineries, sad oil-rich countries, sad lobbyists of all sorts…. I guess that explains it, nothing else does! We have an alternate route to get to work using the internet highway, now we need to put the map to good use.

Be well!

Gayle Kinsey
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Law Office Virtual Technology Support
RAMtech Consulting
www.ramtech.com