Everybody’s doing it!

Cisco, that behemoth of global networking, is hardly the first big corporation to jump on the teleworking bandwagon. And, in fact, offering workers a chance to telecommute isn’t new to the company — of their 60,000 workers, a whopping 20% (12,000) telecommute some of the time.

What is new, though, is the Cisco Virtual Office, a “zero touch” tool being peddled by Cisco to middle and large sized companies that want to allow remote workers to seamlessly and securely stay connected to the real office. Basically, it’s internet connectivity with VPN, a webcam, and an IP phone “in a box”. So now more companies have a technical incentive to offer worker flexibility while also taking advantage of other incentives: they can cut back on real estate/office costs, they can pull from a much more geographically diverse pool of workers, and they can lessen their carbon footprint in the process.

This green angle is one GreenBiz.com jumped on when reporting the story. When a player like Cisco starts talking and acting green it brings to mind those other giants that have gone before them: WalMart now features organic groceries to accentuate all those sweatshop goods they also offer. McDonald’s pushes salads that, considering some of the ingredients, might not be as healthy as they seem but probably won’t kill you as fast as a Big Mac. To be fair, on the other side of the equation is Whole Foods — technically rooted in green long before most others — which certainly generates its fair share of waste that will never see the inside of a recycling center.)

Still, let’s for the moment assume good intentions all around. So what if Cisco’s real focus in pushing telecommuting is a bottom line that stands to benefit by cutting back on real estate and business travel expenses? If they accidentally go a little green in the process, well good for them.

And maybe, too, good for us. Not just on the green front. But if more and more office workers really do get to work remotely, maybe we’ll see them hanging out at LaunchPad Coworking.