By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues
Download or listen to this lively Fresh Dialogues interview
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I met with Rob Bernard, Microsoft’s Chief Environmental Strategist, at – appropriately enough – Green’s Restaurant in San Francisco to discuss the company’s green strategy and why it was late to embrace its green credentials.
What motivated Microsoft to appoint a Green Czar?
Why isn’t Microsoft more prominently green?
“This is not a competition issue for us. This is about literally lightening up the entire ecosystem of the IT industry; and we see it as a collective approach as opposed to an individual company, A or B.” Rob Bernard
We also discussed:
The GreenPeace scorecard, and why Microsoft ranks so low
Microsoft’s partnership with Princeton, Oxford and Cambridge Universities to study climate change
Partnership with the Clinton Foundation to measure the carbon footprint of major cities, as part of the Kyoto Agreement commitments.
Rob’s advice for CIOs? Look up your power bill and check CPU utilization (He says 85% haven’t yet done so)
Future green plans include leveraging Microsoft’s 400,000 partners around the world and boosting environment-based startups with its Ingenuity Point Incubator.
“The urgency of this issue is kind of an ‘all hands on deck.’ ” Rob Bernard
This is Part Two of my interview with Rob Bernard, recorded on March 23, 2009. To listen to Part One Click Here
