Last week, in a chilly Copenhagen, The United Nations kicked off its 15th Climate Change Conference – COP 15. As you’ll probably already know due to the scope of coverage surrounding this event, the summit is an opportunity for government officials, NGO's and industry organizations to work together in reaching an agreement on climate change following the Kyoto agreement. For Dell, it’s a unique opportunity to reinforce our climate policy and to tell our story about IT as a solution.
As Dell’s lead environmental sustainability strategist, I’m delighted to be a part of the team representing Dell and am joined by representatives from our local Sales team, Government Affairs, Communications and technical staff. All eyes really are on Copenhagen at the moment, with everyone hoping for decisive action to be taken so we can really make the low carbon economy a reality.
This is also a great opportunity for us to meet with a wide range of policy makers, customers, business partners and NGO stakeholders essential to supporting our sustainability strategy.
I’ve only been here since Wednesday, but already I’ve had the opportunity to attend a number of key events as both a participant and observer, with Thursday and Friday being particularly busy, but insightful days:
- Starting off my COP 15 agenda, I met with 50 employees in Dell’s Copenhagen office to present Dell’s green initiatives and lifecycle approach to becoming the greenest technology company on the planet
- I participated in a breakfast roundtable with U.S Commerce Secretary Gary Locke where we discussed a range of critical issues such as looking for ways for governments to free up funding for efficiency innovation, finding ways to fast track green patents and securing start-up funding for green-tech SMB's
- We supported our European trade association, TechAmerica on Friday and I joined Dell’s Vic Smith – Senior Strategic Technologist, EMEA – at a Dell / Microsoft info session to meet with COP 15 attendees at the Bella Center and showcase the range of solutions and services Dell offers to customers wanting to invest in green IT as part of their wider sustainability strategies
- On Friday evening, I was a panelist at a press roundtable hosted by the Danish Trade organization, ITB, and opened by the Danish Minister of Climate Affairs, Lykke Friis. The roundtable focused on the role of green IT in mitigating climate change. This was my opportunity to position Dell’s initiatives on sustainability and represent an industry which is a front runner in taking responsibility for the climate changes we are facing. I was joined by a number of other companies include Intel, Fujitsu, IBM and HP.
So as you can see, there has already been an incredible amount of activity and I look forward to the future opportunities this summit is going to bring to Dell. We have a huge chance here to reinforce Michael’s recent op-ed , communicate our green message, build and develop our NGO and industry relationships, and support current and potential customers in working together to find solutions to this critical issue. You’ll be hearing more from me in the coming days.