Keep your travel profile a little greener with Rearden

I am writing this blog in a state that was just smacked by the collapse of one of its local airlines (Aloha), which took both employees and customers very much by surprise. Meanwhile, many of the people I was with at last week's Cisco Partner Summit in Honolulu didn't find it all that easy to return home, what with those 3,000 or so cancelled American Airlines flights. But who's counting?

Actually, one thing I am curious about is how much carbon was reduced by the grounding of all of those idled planes. So, now seems as good a time as any to brush off the some notes from a conversation I had recently with Dan Ford, vice president of marketing for Rearden Commerce. Rearden Commerce offers what it calls the Personal Assistant, which is essentially a travel service site that provides a central location for you to manage all the different sorts of arrangements you have to make when you're going on a trip: plane reservations, hotel, restaurant, car. The list goes on.

But Rearden Commerce doesn't stop there.

It recently has incorporated some features into its service that play to the greener side of travel organizers or procurement managers who are looking for alternatives, according to Ford. Among those are a carbon calculator that shows you the impact of the flight you're taking and that may make you think twice about whether or not a face-to-face encounter is really necessary. The company also has negotiated special rates with rental companies that offer hybrid cars and has added links to audio and visual conferencing services into your organizer dashboard, so you can better consider travel alternatives. Here are some more details.