Green Category Archives

May 13, 2008

Mother's (Earth) Day Epistle

In the 1970s, many of the climate change issues that now dominate our public debate first surfaced. Among the more enduring periodicals from that period was Mother Earth News, a homespun pioneer in practical approaches to ecology, renewable energy, recycling and Emersonian approaches to self-reliance.

As I write this, just past Mother’s Day here in the U.S., it is an appropriate time to reflect on the betterment of our planet and to consult Mother Earth News for a definition of total ecology:

"A scientific means for discovering the expeditious ways of employing the world’s resources in a way which will render a higher standard of living for all mankind… a means of accumulating facts, information and statistics related to world resources…a way of discovering trends in the use and misuse of resources…a network for relating these trends and developing a logical sequence of events to show how a future state might evolve.”

Climate change is not a fashion issue: it is a boardroom issue. Increasingly we see environmental responsibility taken seriously. Businesses, consumers and service providers of all sizes are driving behavioral change to protect the environment. Tightening environmental regulations accelerate this trend.

So it is not surprising that our industry is now turning to a system of green product testing and analysis. In fact, on April 29, 2008, Miercom, a leading network product test center and consultancy, introduced its “Certified Green” product testing and evaluation program. Aimed at establishing complete ‘green’ analysis of networking products, Miercom’s Certified Green program is based on detailed lab test results and qualitative product assessments in addition to a holistic view of product impact. The program provides meaningful, independent guidance to IT organizations looking to improve their own ‘green’ IT and business practices.

As noted in a recent InformationWeek article, Cisco’s Catalyst® 3750-E, 3560-E, 3750, 3560 and 2960 Series Switches were the first products designated as Certified Green:
See here and here.

Miercom’s Cisco Catalyst testing focused on power efficiency, including power usage and management, heat dissipation, cooling requirements, and overall energy efficiency.

Focusing on power efficiency and ‘green’ product practices is a top priority for Cisco. We are proud that our Catalyst switches are the first to be certified under this important new program.

But we also recognize this is only the beginning. Meeting more stringent standards for energy usage is only one part of the equation. It will take new kinds of architecture for technology to play a role in reducing the harmful effects of climate change. In an earlier blog, I shared how a Unified Communications “architecture of inclusion” could play a role:

These new kinds of technology architecture support the four-pillar approach to addressing climate change Cisco adopted over 6 years ago:

1. Providing employees with approaches to reduce/conserve energy consumption (telecommuting, web conferencing, Telepresence, carpooling, etc.)

2. Sustainable business practices (energy/resource efficient workplaces, more efficient product packaging, etc.)

3. Designing each successive generation of products to use less energy (lower energy usage when not in duty cycle, cold standby, etc.)

4. Customer-centric solutions that reduce duplicative, energy-inefficient systems (connected real-estate/cities, etc.).

As we just celebrated Mother’s Day, I salute all mothers around the world, including Mother Earth. In closing, I cite the writing of Washington Irving, an American man of letters who began his career two centuries ago. A prolific essayist, he is best known for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. He also has some wise words for why we must protect Mother Earth:

“A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials, heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when troubles thicken around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.”

Posted by Alan Cohen at 12:30 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

March 17, 2008

An Architecture of Inclusion to Save the Planet?

In a few days, Cisco is going to host an industry first: a virtual “eco-panel.” The session will be simulcast live to audiences around the world, including 2,500 attendees of the Voicecon conference in Orlando, Florida. Using TelePresence, former Vice President and Nobel Prize Winner Al Gore will be participating from Nashville, Tennessee, Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers will be participating from Cisco headquarters in San Jose, Cisco EVP of Marketing and Government Affairs Sue Bostrom will be live on the keynote stage at VoiceCon, and science journalist Lawrence McGinty will be beaming in from London, UK.

It’s not going to be your father’s tradeshow event.

Rather than foreshadow the keynote let me herald the question: can the information and communication industry apply our technology and talents to address what is clearly one of the most significant problems of our day? Can we use the tools and the time given to us to help reverse global warming?

Addressing climate change is not an opt-in technology subject. It’s not an upgrade cycle you could or should delay. Solutions and insights are not proprietary to a specific company, country or part of the globe.

And it bears a direct relationship to Unified Communications, which we see as the unification of all forms of communications. Because we must work together, to connect, communicate and collaborate together to solve our environmental problems -- in ways that span companies, countries, and cultures. Climate change tests the true underpinning of UC in a real way. Even how we speak, how we communicate about climate change will be different, as witnessed by the recently chartered George Mason University Center of Excellence in Climate Change Communications Research.

As an industry, we like to think in terms of architectures. What about architecture of inclusion, one that supports openness and the rich context, and nuance of video communications as a part of collaboration? One that integrates video as effortlessly as voice, texting and IM? Can the unification of communications insert efficiency and effectiveness into business?

There is an inherent economy to inclusion. Lowering the barriers to helping people and technologies work together improves cycle time, lowers the cost of integration and re-work, and brings a multiplier of participants to any challenge. In the Flat World, globalization -- which is an inclusive architecture – requires people to communicate more effectively to achieve business goals.

The Internet changed communications and business, irrevocably by flattening the barriers first to communicate anyway on the globe, and, secondly, to allow businesses to reinvent themselves around a networked business model. Now, Web 2.0, in particular video, is reinventing how people communicate with each other.

Thus the communications industry, too, stands at the crossroad of climate change. And if we can enable the rich context that people communicate in person but instead over the network, maybe we are supporting the planet’s amazing aesthetic, noted, simply, by the late great Louis Armstrong:

“I see skies of blue, and clouds of white;
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night,
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.”

Everyone’s included.

Posted by Alan Cohen at 08:37 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)