The carbon footprint of ITC has been the focus of much discussion and much green activity. IT vendors have been particularly responsible, and especially vocal about efforts to clean up shop - executing on corporate green programs as a launch pad for extending the benefits of IT green products and services to their customers. But as The Climate Change Group’s
Smart 2020 Report explains, while ICT now contributes only 2 percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions, it has the potential to reduce global emissions by 15% by 2020. To fully exploit ICT’s real potential to mitigate climate change – and the real power of Green IT - it will be necessary to apply IT to the resolution of environmental challenges in other sectors. A view of green IT that considers IT as an ‘enabler’ of change beyond the data centre is an approach that Cisco Systems has adopted with remarkable enthusiasm. A good example can be seen in Cisco’s “Connected Urban Development” initiative, which received added momentum last month through the launch, in partnership with the Climate Change Group, of the CUD Alliance, a high level advocacy/strategy group aimed at the creation of sustainable programs to deliver integrated, ICT-enabled urban climate-change solutions in areas such as connected buildings, transportation, and energy management.
Rick Huijbregts, Cisco Canada’s VP of Vertical Solutions, has been a strong and consistent advocate of building smart communities in partnership with other private and public sector stakeholders, with the ultimate goal of connecting discrete smart systems in one large network to generate even greater efficiencies. IT in Canada had an opportunity to speak with Rick about the Cisco vision that is animating projects like the CUD.
IT in Canada:
Cisco, in partnership with The Climate Group, announced the creation of the Connected Urban Development Alliance last week. Can you describe Cisco’s Connected Urban Development (CUD) initiative, i.e. what is the overall objective of CUD, and what is Cisco’s specific input to Alliance’s climate change objectives?
