On November 20, the new GeSI Board of Directors took office.  Deutsche Telekom, Verizon, and ETNO representatives were elected Chair, Vice-Chair, and Treasurer respectively.  BT, Ericsson, Orange, Microsoft, the ITU, and Swisscom, and were also officially inducted at the Board meeting which took place at AT&T’s headquarters in Dallas, Texas.

“This year, the membership of GeSI is focused on making sure information and communications technology solutions are taken into account in the policy dialogues around climate change, human rights, and sustainability,” said Luis Neves, GeSI Chairman and Group Sustainability and Climate Change Officer for Deutsche Telekom.  “Congratulations to all of the companies who have been elected to serve on the Board.”

In addition to Luis Neves representing Deutsche Telecom as the Chairman, Chris Lloyd, representing Verizon, was elected Vice-Chair, and Danilo Riva representing ETNO was elected Treasurer.

GeSI also decided to establish four Committees to oversee its most important projects and programs, and the following appointments were made at the Board meeting: Gabrielle Giner, representing BT, will chair the Climate Change Committee; Chris Lloyd, representing Verizon, will chair the Human Rights & Empowerment Committee; Susan Seutter, representing Microsoft, will chair the Cross-Sector Engagement Committee; and Andreas Harker, representing Swisscom, will chair the Industry Responsibility Committee.

“With this leadership team, we believe that we are well positioned to champion the role of ICT in promoting sustainability this year,” Neves said. “As the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change talks approach next year, it will be important for policy-makers to better understand what ICT can do.”

The Global e-Sustainability Initiative was founded by major global information and communications technology companies to study major sustainability challenges and develop recommendations for how the ICT sector might be able to address them.  GeSI is well-known for its SMART2020 and SMARTer2020 series of reports, and is committed to thought leadership, cross-sector engagement, information sharing, and project development.

Global Enabling Sustainability Initiative

Global Enabling Sustainability Initiative

The Global Enabling Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) is a strategic partnership of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector committed to creating and promoting digital technologies and practices that foster economic, environmental and social sustainability. Formed in 2001, GeSI’s vision is a sustainable world through responsible, ICT-enabled transformation. GeSI fosters global and open cooperation, informs the public of its members’ voluntary actions to improve their sustainability performance, and promotes technologies that foster sustainable development. GeSI enjoys a diverse and global membership, representing around 30 of the world’s leading ICT companies and partners with over 30 global business and international organizations such as the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the World Resources Forum Association (WRFA), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA), the Centre for Sustainable Consumption and Production (CSCP), The Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), the Global Climate Forum (GCF), the World Green Building Council (WGBC), the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), and the International Energy Agency (IEA) - as well as a range of international stakeholders committed to ICT sustainability objectives to share and develop ideas, launch joint initiatives, and collaborate on a broad range of sustainability projects. These partnerships help shape GeSI’s global vision regarding the evolution of the ICT sector, and how it can best meet the challenges of sustainable development.

For more information, see www.gesi.org.

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