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British companies are using technology to prevent them having to travel, it is claimed.

Gill Upton, the editor of the Business Travel magazine, suggests that non-essential meetings can easily be carried out using video conferencing.

Such technology has come down in price and is now fairly cheap to set up, she continues.

Firms are also more likely to use web conferencing to save on expense, Ms Upton continues.

Research from the WWF states that if one in five of Europe's business travellers used technology to hold video conferences, around 22 million tonnes of CO2 emissions could be saved each year.

It conducted research which shows 85 per cent of people say conferencing technology will help them fly less.

Furthermore, nine per cent of business respondents said video conferencing could help them improve productivity.

The charity says: "Business flying plays an essential part in determining aviation's future as it currently represents 22 per cent of UK passenger trips and a much higher percentage of airline profitability."

In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were 'guaranteed response times' and 'allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues'.