Cisco, Al Gore: UC Can Combat Global Warming
At VoiceCon Orlando 2008 on Wednesday, Nobel Laureate and former vice president Al Gore, along with Cisco Systems CEO and chairman John Chambers discussed the role collaborative technologies can play in the environment and offered insight into what actions are necessary to restore the environment and battle global warming.
The discussion, beamed into Orlando via Cisco TelePresence, the San Jose, Calif.-based networking giant's high-definition video conferencing platform, brought together Gore, who was in Nashville; Chambers, who joined form San Jose; and a group from London.
"The environment has now become a critical business issue," said Cisco executive vice president and chief marketing officer Sue Bostrom from the VoiceCon stage. "Climate change definitely has everyone's attention, but it doesn't have everyone's participation."
Gore, who earned critical acclaim with his global warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," said there's both good and bad news when it comes to climate change. The good news, he said, is that the public opinion is changing. The bad news, however, is that there is still a lot of work to be done.
"What is needed is a new sense of urgency," he said, noting that some scientists estimate that the North Polar ice caps could be gone within five years.
Business leaders, Gore said, are starting to recognize that urgency and by launching green initiatives and cutting travel by using video conferencing and collaboration solutions are making an impact.
"I think this is really the most realistic effort I've seen so far," Gore said to Chambers of TelePresence, joking that he doesn't own stock in Cisco. Gore added that instead of flying to Orlando or San Jose or London for the session, he was able to travel a few blocks from his home to host a near face-to-face discussion.
Chambers agreed and said the Internet is going to play an influential role in reducing our carbon footprint, along with the new technologies that promote collaboration and communications without the need to travel.
"It can address all of these issues," he said, noting that the second-wave of the Internet with Web 2.0 collaborative applications is going to help work toward that common goal.
Chambers said the goal is to get political leaders, business leaders and innovators together to hash out how to solve the global crisis, but to do it without making them travel the globe.
Technologies like TelePresence, he said, can have the same impact as an in-person meeting without creating further damage.
"It's about changing the world in an economically and socially responsible way," he said.
For Cisco's part, Bostrom said, the vendor has put together an eco-board and has launched several green initiatives to reduce the company's carbon footprint. According to Chambers, within two years Cisco was able cut emissions 10 percent per employee and save millions of dollars by cutting out unnecessary travel.
And while Cisco's progress is impressive, Gore said regulations have to be put in place to reward and not stifle innovators creating solutions that can preserve the environment and regulate vendors and companies that are still pushing "older, legacy, polluting technologies."
"We really need both innovation, and regulation and policies," he said.
One suggestion Gore offered is a tax credit to offset research and development costs to companies taking a proactive green approach, while at the same time establishing a cost for carbon to companies just how much they're releasing into the air.
"The single best thing we can do is reduce taxes on business and employees and replace that with CO2 taxes," he said. "If we put a price on carbon that would unleash the innovations."
Gore noted that while he's optimistic about the direction technology is taking in affecting global climate change, political backing, funding and attention are necessary in order for it to reach the tipping point.
"If you want to go quickly, go alone," Gore said, quoting a proverb. "If you want to go far, go together. We want to go far, quickly," he said.
Chambers too, noted that the tipping point is approaching and advanced technologies are playing a strong role.
"The tipping point is unified communications, it's the internet, it's video; being able to see eyeball to eyeball," Chamber said, later adding: "It's about unified communications changing the world productivity-wise, healthcare-wise and the environment," Chamber said.
Gore concluded there is a business and economic transition and globalization is creating more and more opportunities. However, he said, global technologies and strategies are going to help defeat the key challenges of communication and collaboration, two necessary components to create stronger plans and policies to fight global warming.
"If we make up our minds to act, there's no doubt we can do this, we have the sustainable technologies," he said.