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Humanizing Technology:
Cisco Puts “Green” Lights
on the Information Highway
A Green Technology Interview with Laura
Ipsen
by Racquel Palmese
Started
by a small group of computer scientists from Stanford University, Cisco
Systems,Inc., has been busy wiring the world for technology and developing
Internet Protocol (IP)-based networking technologies for over two decades.
Now the company is poised to solve some of the world's trickiest
environmental challenges. Laura Ipsen, Cisco’s vice president of Global
Policy and Government Affairs, works with governments worldwide piloting
programs that utilize technology and networking to achieve their green
initiatives. In this wide-ranging interview with Green Technology
Magazine, Ipsen takes us into a future greened by advanced,
“humanized” networking and tailored information technology. It is a future
that is rapidly becoming present-time reality, as these new technologies
are being tested in cities around the world. Along with a passion for
technology, she is also a strong proponent of gender equity issues. She
discusses why women are inspired to take leadership on environmental
issues and the importance of attracting girls to math, science and
technology.
Cisco
describes itself as a global leader for networking. What does that
mean, especially in terms of today’s environmental challenges?
Cisco has grown from a box company of routers and switches
into a company addressing how the future of communications is going to
work. We are about using the network as a platform to change all of life's
experiences - the way that we work, live, play and learn. The company has
grown globally, building network-based solutions that drive what companies
do, how governments are transforming, and, increasingly, how small
businesses and individuals can use technology and empower themselves. Our
whole next generation campaign of the "human network at work," means that
technology becomes more human and lifelike in real time. We're seeing this
next wave that is based both on the network's intelligence and on the
human network and the power of collaboration. It's really through this
network that people around the world are able to connect and collaborate
in new ways. That's how we define the human network at work.
What does this mean in terms of someone working towards green
government?
It's about saying we have a network and technology
that enable us to get access to information and content. One of the
challenges is that there's so much out there. How can it become more
personal? If my interests are about green issues, how do I use the network
to educate myself about the environment? How do I use the network to find
other people who want to work on green issues in my community? Technology
itself isn't warm until you engage with it, and then it becomes more
human.
Take it to a high level on green. The best way for us to
address climate change is really the power of innovation and
collaboration. The human network makes that possible. A community may have
an environmental challenge, but the people in the community may not be
able to solve the problem. The power of using technology to collaborate
with the best experts around the world to get access and visibility to
issues is what we think will solve those challenges, and, indeed, the
biggest challenges in the world. On an issue like climate change, you can
use technology to collaborate so you have the best scientists, government
officials - a combination of the public and private sectors - coming
together to solve big issues. That's where the network becomes human. It
changes the experience; it creates new pathways and opportunities for
people to address issues that typically have been very silo'd.
If you are an official in a small city and want to adopt a
green plan but you don’t know where to start, you can go out on the
Internet and search for green mandates for cities and come up with lots of
information. But how do you create a roadmap adapted to your needs?
It sounds like what you’re talking about is the next level, where
they could actually find other people to collaborate with.
Yes.
It's not just finding content. It's leveraging the technology to
personalize what you do. For example, a sleeper issue in climate change
may be water. How are we possibly going to address all the water issues
around the world? It may be that there are a million ideas out there that
could become a knowledge base. But the only way to collect those ideas is
through the power of collaboration and a network. Having a one-way,
network-based interface and e-business isn't enough. It's really about how
disparate groups can actually connect together to take on the top
challenges. We're seeing that in action at the government level with the
Connected Urban Development partnership, which is about building a global
community of connected cities.
Would you give us an overview of
this initiative?
As part of our participation in the Clinton
Global Initiative, we made the Connected Urban Development partnership
commitment to establish three pilot cities to explore new technology
opportunities that would have an impact on that city's carbon footprint
and its green objectives. It was really through the power of technology
and collaboration between the government and the private sector that we
created a number of new opportunities and innovations around green and
sustainable cities. We have three pilot cities -Amsterdam, San Francisco
and Seoul - and we have made an initial commitment of $15 million. Out of
those we have grown several innovations that really are a showcase for
others to learn from about how to use technology.
In the case of
San Francisco we have a Wi-Fi bus that we hope will create new incentives
and opportunities for people to take public transportation. That was the
goal of Mayor Newsom, who said he wanted to make his buses more green, to
use a technology infrastructure to do diagnostics about their performance,
to track where they are in the city to help alleviate traffic congestion,
and to allow people to communicate using Wi-Fi on the bus.
We are
working in public-private partnerships with the mayors of these three
cities. We just engaged another four cities to ascertain what their key
challenges are on the environment and how technology can play a role. This
is in terms of traffic congestion, creating Smart Work Centers, and
leveraging new technologies. An example would be using GPS (Global Positioning Systems)
to get people personalized travel assistance that gives information about
roadwork and traffic congestion with real time monitoring so they can make
smart decisions about their commutes. Through collaboration with the
cities using these technologies, we are finding sustainable models for
them to be more green.
What types of projects are you doing in
Amsterdam?
In Amsterdam, we're working on developing what we
call Smart Work Centers. These are centers that we are developing with
local partners in real estate and with the city’s development
organizations. Smart Work Centers are in the rings around the city,
outside the city center, where people can work remotely in a professional
work environment with access to broadband and other technology, such as unified communications and TelePresence. This creates the opportunity for
employees to either work in the range of a city, or to time-shift their
work so they can go in early in the morning, get their meetings and other
work accomplished, and then commute into the city if they have a critical
meeting to attend. The neat thing is that a lot of the real estate that's
being used in this situation is buildings that were vacant on the fringes
of the city. So this is giving an in-the-city experience without really
being there and then really helping on some of the massive traffic
congestion issues that the city has.
We’re very optimistic that
they can measure the impact of these Smart Work Centers in terms of GHG
(greenhouse gas) reduction. It's well underway, and we're developing
multiple sites.
What will the next generation of technology
look like for green cities?
We're developing new technologies
and architectures around traffic mitigation and environmental dashboards
to help cities develop tools to track their carbon footprints. This is a
big challenge for cities. For example, many European cities are making
carbon reduction commitments, and the biggest challenge is to make sure
they can do the actual daily carbon footprint measurements with a tracking
system. They need to see what the impact is in terms of reducing GHG
emissions that when they make investments in renewables or change some of
their traffic processes. Those are some of the things we're exploring in
our next generation of technology. The goal of this is to develop pilots
that will be replicable, using an intelligent network and a platform to
share what we've learned as best practices so these types of innovations
can be replicated in other cities. We were proud when, a few months ago,
the European Commission recognized the Cisco
Connected Urban Development program as a best practice of innovation for
sustainable cities.
Do you think that what you're doing in San
Francisco can be replicated throughout the state?
Absolutely.
Obviously having a very strong leader on green issues in Mayor Newsom
helps and gives the program a lot of visibility. It's important to work
with cities with strong leaders, a committed government body and also a
committed CIO. It's really a leadership issue to make the type of
investments in changes and to implement the technologies. In San Jose
(where Cisco is headquartered), Mayor Reed is very progressive on
environmental issues. We are working with the city to show them what we're
doing in San Francisco to see how we can replicate some of the business
models in San Jose. We think this can easily scale in many of the cities.
Who do you work with to put these partnerships
together?
Initially we started out on our own and through the
Clinton Global Initiative invested $15 million spread across multiple
cities. One of the things we're finding as we work on the issues is that
more companies not only approach us, but they approach the city with ideas
about utilizing technology effectively in other areas of traffic
management other forms of transportation. We provided the seed money, and
the goal is to create enough momentum that it attracts other consultants
or businesses that have other ideas. We also have been working with MIT on
developing new technology, so we have a partnership with them as part of
our Connected Urban Development strategy.
Besides strong
leadership at local levels, what else can government do to help move along
this type of partnership?
Government needs to set goals and
priorities to decide what's important for their cities. Leadership is
crucial, because even in San Francisco, which is a very green city, the
types of investments that you might have to make in infrastructure and
technology are things that are the decisions of policymakers and
appropriators, so it is important that everyone is onboard with the
strategy.
You also focus on technological aspects of green
building. Would you explain that?
It’s about using an
intelligent network, having a Wi-Fi or wireless enabled building and tying
that technology back into things like heating and cooling and water usage
to create more sustainable opportunities for existing buildings. We are
addressing how technology is actually merged with things like LEED (green
building certification), so that the way you design a building leverages
technology to achieve the highest level of LEED certification.
Where are you putting your focus right now?
We’re
developing a vision for the future of Connected Urban Development. In 2008
we engaged four new cities, all in Europe - Birmingham, Hamburg, Lisbon
and Madrid - primarily because there is so much momentum in Europe at the
city level, and the mayors are very active. Many of the mayors are making
commitments for their cities on their greenhouse gas
reductions.
Do we have a way to go to catch up with the
Europeans on this?
Yes, but we should be optimistic because we
have Governor Schwarzenegger, who has been extremely progressive with
things like AB32 and is really setting the tone for the rest of the states
across the country. I think we have an opportunity with this governor to
leverage his support of innovation to solve a lot of challenges. He's been
very active in engaging the technology community to understand the power
of innovation at every level when it comes to climate issues for the state
and the commitments we're making on greenhouse gas
reductions.
On a more personal note, as vice president of Global
Policy and Government Affairs for Cisco, can you give us a snapshot of
what your average day looks like?
As a mother of three, nothing
in my life is average or balanced. What's really fun about leading Global
Policy and Government Affairs, and also as the executive sponsor of gender
diversity at Cisco and co-chair of our Eco Board, is that I get to
collaborate on issues with people across the company, and externally with
governments. In any one day I could be doing a TelePresence meeting to
work on a coaching and mentoring program that we're developing on
technology for women, or hosting 100 ambassadors from around the world
talking about green technology and the power of innovation. I might be
preparing my CEO for a political meeting, engaging my team over
TelePresence on how we are going to collaborate in the future and using a
Web 2.0 model to track our networking with government officials worldwide.
We're a company just shy of 66,000 and we use the technology to
access people around the world to get our jobs done. No one day is average
but what's exciting for me now is that I have an ability to connect what I
do on public policy, what I do with governments around the world, to green
issues and to issues that are important to gender diversity. The human
network and social networking is creating connections and opportunities in
a different way today.
How big is your team?
My team
itself is right around 25 globally. This morning I did a performance
review for the person that works for me in India. More broadly, the team
that I work with and manage through the Eco Board and our Green Taskforce
includes hundreds of people that I work on strategic initiatives with.
You are a big supporter of gender equity and especially
supportive of young women getting into the fields of science and
technology. Why is this so important to you?
We have a group
within Cisco that focuses on getting girls into technology. We’re really
trying to change the branding and imaging of what technology jobs look
like. It's not the pocket protector stuff that it used to be. We trying to
get more girls in technology to hopefully increase the pipeline a lot
earlier.
When I talk to other women who are doing this, everyone
has a personal story about what got them into green and the environment. I
don't think women are doing this because they see it as a big career
opportunity, but as an opportunity for leadership and something that’s
meaningful. For me it was when my son came home from school and had
written a report about why the polar bears are losing their home. He said,
"Mommy, what are we going to do about this?" That really got me thinking
that we can do something with the technology. It just ended up being the
right time for me. I raised my hand. Part of what women need to do is when
they see a compelling opportunity as it relates to green and the
environment is to do something, to raise their hands and take the
opportunity make a difference. That's where I really see women having a
huge impact.
When I started Cisco's Eco Board, which is really the
leadership group that drives the company’s green agenda, I would say the
majority of people who sent me emails asking what they can do to help were
women.
What would you like to say to those working in green
government, especially women?
The leadership in Sacramento,
including people like Susan Kennedy and Secretary Rosario Marin, all great
leaders on environmental issues, my message would be to keep up the good
work. This is a state where women are passionate about green. We're making
a difference, and we really can connect our green goals back to what our
personal goals are. I think these are the women out there who are really
going to create the change for the future.
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