By fully leveraging the power of the Internet, telepresence provides a truly viable alternative to business travel. A generation or more beyond video conferencing, telepresence creates an
environment where real-to-life participants interact in a shared boardroom, even though they might be separated by tens of thousands of miles. By replacing the need to transport humans to meetings around the globe, it’s fast becoming the ideal way to lower corporate carbon footprints and protect the environment, creating a significant return on investment and boosting productivity.

So begins a white paper on this subject in an article entitled: "Telepresence: reducing the impact of business travel"