 Hello, everybody. Welcome to the impact session on harnessing technology for environmental sustainability. Today we'll be discussing text role when it comes to and how to contribute to climate change, how technology from AI to logistics can have positive impact when it comes to tackling environmental challenges. How sectors can prioritize initiatives their partnerships policy practices and how reaching these goals will take immense coordination from both governments and the private sector. And how we can reunite the tech sector to achieve the 2030 vision. So, for many of you who are visiting and joining by toppling. You can also share some of your comments as well as some of your questions and zoom chat box during this session. And so the goal of the session really is to explore and to provide some framing around why technology is so important in this conversation. Yes, it's helped societies and it's caused many environmental and social problems as well but it's also that key center focus. When it comes to addressing that global climate change challenges. And we've obviously seen record amounts of challenges from the climate change with record levels of air travel that's the client but we're still seeing those data show up we had almost the hottest weather on record last year. And secondly how the developments we're seeing has warranted further investments in tech and innovation, and what I mean by that is that pandemic has led to not only a global health crisis but it's also led to global economic crisis. So making sure that the public funds that are available are also getting allocated to climate protection as well. This is where also the for IR can play a vital role. So we're going to kick this session off into two sections, the first panel discussion with our speakers who you will meet very shortly, and then a more detailed discussion, limited to our four members and partners in a breakout session. So I want to introduce our panel first anger Anderson is the executive director of the United Nations environment program. Pat gill singer as a CEO of VMware soon to start at Intel in mid February, and Rebecca Massey Zach is the CEO of tech soup and Diego says gill is the founder and chief executive officer of Pachama. So I wanted to start off with a question here to the group. We're beginning a new year with a new administration with the Biden presidency, where climate change is going to be a top priority. Thanks so we've also joined the planet at Paris climate accord more eos to come. I want to ask the group. How do you see technologies role in facilitating this goal. And if you can share some brief story, or an experience that you had that inspired these actions as well. I want to share some of those insights to the audience and what each and everyone can do to more rapidly scale technology for those global goals, whether it be the policy part the practice part or the partnership part. So in girl start off with you. Well, thank you and it's a pleasure to be here. Look. Yes, we have a new administration in the US but I'd like to posit that the American economy never left Paris. There might have been a federal decision to leave but the American economy actually was in Paris. What's really good is that now we have the political leadership to move this forward but I think it's, it's important to to mention that. And so of course we're delighted with with the decision to come back in. But what we really need to think about is to build that future that does not rely on coal or extractives or concrete etc. We need to think about circularity we need to understand I work for the United Nations environment entity right. So we need to understand we can't continue to take stuff out of the environment or resources put them into the economy and discard them back into the environment as emissions as trash as even waste etc. And here digital technologies have a critical role to play. You know, how are we going to think about funding how can we use technology for power plants how can we use transportation as a vehicle service. How can we do digital financing crowdfunding. All of these things are beginning to offer us up new opportunities. And I think it's very worth while thinking about that we in the UN and our Secretary General speak about these two mega trends that we need to be mindful of one climate change. Another one digital technology, understanding these two mega trends and how they can intersect which is part of your question is part of this, the story of the solutions. And I think when we begin you want us for a little story and I'm aware that we have to do all of this in a couple of minutes. But what we're seeing inside games gaming is interesting, because, you know, billions of people are in the gaming industry, play games, anyone who has a teenager in their lives will know this. And so, and, and, and it offers an opportunity and we are doing about working with the gaming industry to provide these digital nudges to make young people aware. And, and, for example, wanna, we've worked with at Forest by and financial, they have used this so that you can put a few cents in. And this and get a book for your energy credits of what you're doing. And this is again gets translated into tree planting hundred and 22 million trees have now been actual physical real trees have been planted through this. And there are a lot and this is, I mean, a small example, but not an unimportant one. So look, there's lots to be done, but technology will be part of the solution not part of the problem. Thank you. And, and Pat, VMware and you really, you recently released the 2030 agenda as well. How do you see a text role in facilitating some of these goals we outlined. Thank you so much. And, you know, clearly, I think we all look at the new administration with optimism. As they come in and clearly their tech agenda, I think will be more significant, more aligned and at least we now have a president who believes there might be a problem right, you know, encouraging for all of us. You know, I'll start with a little bit of the story, and maybe two little brief ones I was having a conversation with my daughter in law. And now with three, you know, with three married children, one of them is a writer so a bit of a protagonist and she loves to debate with me. She was complimenting me on some of my accomplishments, but knowing her of course there was something more at work, and she says, but did you have to bankrupt my planet to do so. And it was one of those, you know, very sharp points in the conversations just always stuck with me, you know, have we left the planet a better place for our children and grandchildren. And a little story was the, I think it was what October 9 was the orange day in the Bay Area. Right when we saw the fires just you know in the smoke filled air and from where I'm standing literally, I could see the fires on a far ridge. Right, you know, almost 20 miles or so from our house. At that point and we were getting notices all night long about potentially needing to evacuate and I called it the triple. Right, we saw the social issues. Right, we saw the pandemic issues. And we saw environmental issues, you know, three things, all sort of cascading right together and it was probably the only day as we've gone through the pandemic, but I actually felt very depressed. I felt very optimistic person but all of a sudden, all of these coming together it's like this is a point where, boy, no it's not okay. And I think with that as we think about and I've spent my career as a technologist and I like to think about this period of time that we're in, you know, where the superpowers of technology are greater than ever. Right, as we see him lifting more and more of the economic progress of the planet, you know, as we're encroaching on you know we can see in sight where we'll have literally 90% of humanity is being connected. Right, where we're seeing you know things like cloud and AI being able to touch more and more of humanity. And we truly say we are going to use those superpowers of technology as a shaping as a force for good, and particularly start to attack some of these triple issues, pandemics, social change and climate change at scale. And obviously I'm here because I fundamentally believe that is the case, and it is not only our opportunity, but I actually think it's the obligation of tech leaders to be truly shaping technology as that force for good. Yeah, and Rebecca, when it comes to partnerships, I mean you work with so many different tech companies so you have a wide preview and approach of this technique so I'm curious what your thoughts on all that. Thank you Sally and thank you to the forum for bringing me to this panel I'm really delighted to be able to bring a broad civil society perspective to this important topic. This is a nonprofit network that operates a platform to bring tech and resources from 100 corporations and 400 foundations to civil society organizations in 200 countries. Environmental sustainability and other global goals can be accelerated by expanding the engagement and trust of communities and technology is a key enabler. And today are really inspired by the 11,000 community based organizations focused on environmental sustainability who are reached by tech supes platform, as well as the hundreds of thousands of community organizations we reach to focus on societal issues, exacerbated by climate and other environmental issues. These tend to be smaller organizations whose names you may not recognize, yet they are deeply engaged with their local communities, and it is this last mile where community organizations shine that inspires me and hold significant potential. I'd like to share one example. Makaya, a civil society organization has led diverse projects in Colombia and regionally for 14 years to strengthen capacities for social development through cooperation technology and innovation. They saw opportunity for multi stakeholder impact from a regulatory change making TV white space technology available for internet access. Makaya focused on farming communities in historical conflict zones. They brought together local government members and corporations such as a lo and partners la vaza Microsoft and SAP, and they engaged other civil society organizations to train young people on sophisticated digital tools for advanced fleet management devices, market information and soil water and air monitoring tools. They did so without leaving behind the farmers who had been there for years. Makaya also followed a similar model to bring internet access and training to rural schools and with another project helped citizens learn how to use coffee cup sized air sensors to collect air quality data and influence local government decision makers. This last mile human connections demonstrate how the impact of environmental sustainability initiatives is enhanced by trusted relationships and people who have firsthand knowledge of needs and personal stakes in the intended outcomes. I believe that three actions are essential to establish this type of meaningful engagement through civil society organizations, first enable two way sharing of information, not just two communities but also from engaged civil society and the implementation of regulations and the solutions, they see the gaps and they know how to fill them. And third, engage civil society organizations and monitoring the impacts and reporting the unintended consequences of policies regulations and solutions, investing in these engagement models and in digital infrastructure that includes civil society organizations and these new ways represents a significant opportunity to accelerate environmental sustainability. Thank you. Wait a segue to Diego. Diego your company Pachima and I'll have you explain a little bit more is a machine learning company that uses lighter technology to accurately verify carbon capture by force. So by that my assumption is that a lot of government participation is needed. Do you have any thoughts on what Rebecca had also said and also just from your purview what your thoughts are. Yeah, thank you Sally and thank you. That was for inviting us to participate at Pachima. Indeed, we use artificial intelligence to analyze satellite images of the forest worldwide and be able to estimate how much carbon forest sequester monitor projects that are either conserving or restoring forest as a solution to climate change. And we work with corporations such as Microsoft and Amazon and Shopify that are looking to achieve net zero by supporting projects that are removing carbon from the atmosphere. And, you know what we're seeing is that yes technology plays a fundamental role on bringing transparency, accountability and efficiency on these markets because carbon markets have an enormous potential to drive funding to the necessary solutions to climate change, but we do need all the latest technologies at the service of making these markets work effectively. In terms of a story that inspired us. You know this idea actually came when I was visiting the Amazon rainforest in Peru. I'm originally from Argentina I was doing a trip with my brothers, and we met several landowners that actually could participate in carbon markets, but they had the big barrier to entry to the market of having to hire consultants or auditors to come to the forest to do the carbon assessments. And meanwhile we have you know, an explosion of satellite data that is available to do analysis of the forest. And now with COVID you know auditors can actually not go to the forest to do the assessments so COVID has provided an acceleration of the need for the use of the latest technologies to address these issues. So yes, excited about the new administration excited about the acceleration of the adoption of technologies on solving climate change. And anger based on the conversation we just heard from our panelists, what is the, what's the UN's strategy, when it comes to accelerating some of these partnerships from private and public. Well, I mean we just heard an excellent example exactly of where the UN and technology meets beautifully because obviously these carbon deals are done how under the climate change convention because why because we agreed in Paris to drive towards 1.5. So it does take, it does take these actors we in UNEP and in the United Nations speak about these three planetary crisis the climate crisis, good examples. The pollution and waste crisis again think plastic think waste in the oceans etc, which also needs technology technology solutions, and the biodiversity and nature crisis again, where we're losing nature what species are we using how can we use local up loads of data and information to to help us understand how we are spending overspending our natural capital at too high a rate. So, the example that we just heard is is really great because we need to use that kind of technology in monitoring and data. And here, you know, in the United Nations environment program. This is exactly what we're going to be doing and we've established a new strategy that we're rolling out we have the big assembly, a couple of weeks from now with a global environmental data strategy dimension and and and inside of that. We really want to on the one hand, democratize environmental data we host an enormous amount of data as you can imagine, we are proud to host the IPCC we're proud to host IPCC twin which deals with biodiversity called it best we do the, the chemicals and we do all of these, this data needs to get out there, and people need to be able to understand it. And then they need intermediaries, just such as what we heard, so that we can monitor transparently and hold to account companies that are leaning in but at the same time, and there's that to do item for the technology industry, we need to be mindful that e-waste is something we can no longer afford. We produce about 50 million tons of e-waste a year, 50 million tons of e-waste a year. That is equivalent to all commercial airlines ever made, but we do that every year. So we cannot just throw that into the garbage we need to mine our waste and have that circularity. And that's part of the challenge that we are working with many governments on, as well as with companies, precisely to land some of these solutions. Yeah. When I think of another challenge and looking at it in the lens of corporations, Pat, is, you know, we briefly discussed VMware's vision for 2030 agenda and some of, and I'll highlight some of the goals that you have is reducing carbon emissions and funding will cover its sustainability projects around the world. That's two from many of the things you outlined. It also seems like you guys are moving away from CSR. It's actually being implemented in businesses. So one is, I know there's a lot of executives in the room and in the audience. How have you been able to convince your executives to get on board? So it's a business decision, not just a PR decision. And then the other question is the big question is, will you be implementing something similar and how do you think about this in your new role as CEO Intel? Yeah, thank you. And maybe, you know, before we talk a little bit about the 2030 goals, a little bit of the 2020 goals was a good, I'll say canary in the coal mine to what we could lay out for 2030 because you know the company and you know we had done this earlier in my 10 year I've been CEO of the company for eight years and we had our 2020 goals and they were around RE 100, right, you know, some different aspects of our, you know, power savings efficiency, some overall megaton goals for carbon reduction. And all of these, we, you know, built into the culture of the company, right, our values, and in that sense. And so the first piece of guidance I would give to any leader is this has to be seen as integrated into, you know, and I call the values of the company, the soul of the company, you know, it's who you are and you have to be reinforcing and building that. So when you try to then say it becomes a business responsibility, it can't be this other thing, right, you know, it already has to be part of who you are, and what you're trying to accomplish as a business of building it into the culture and values gives you that foundational element that you can actually say now let's build these next set of goals and as we've laid out our 30 goals for 2030. And a lot of that's inspired around the UN objectives that have been laid out, but also contextualized to our business and, you know, if you look at the 30 goals, you know, some of them we have no idea how we're going to accomplish them. You know, they're just these big audacious goals that are out there. Others we have very firm roadmaps okay we know what we're going to go do and how it's as composite of aspirational goals. And it's ones that we have very specific objectives against, you know, and then we're building them into the each of my BU and GM leaders has a piece of that that they're responsible for in their business as well. And we've managed the company a quarterly cycle as many companies do that we have the objectives of the company the CEO report card that I report out, you know, to the board, but also bind to all of our bonuses. Right, so if we don't do these hey it hurts our financial returns that we see as individuals, just like any other of our corporate objectives that we'd have so we're building it into our business processes in a natural and fundamental, fundamental way. We're also then saying and we've lined our 2030 goals over across trust, equity and sustainability. You know, so three categories that all 30 goals fit under that broader umbrella, you know, building trust, a lot of that's around cyber cyber attacks cybersecurity can the world trust the digital platforms that we're building for every aspect of humanity. You know, building our diversity inclusion training education, and then finally sustainability where many of these topics fall, but we're also then backing that up with some crazy project for saying let's go do some really innovative things and one of those. Of course that I'm really excited about is our establishing, you know, one of our major campuses here in California is the first micro grid. We've built you know battery arrays, you know solar panels, we're connecting it up to the power systems we're also making it an emergency response resource for the Palo Alto community here as well. And we're sort of saying, here's our crazy project that's innovative committing capital to it, and that we're then telling others join us in similar projects as well. It aligns with our long term goals, it aligns with our culture of innovation, and clearly saying we're going to move the needle in some very tangible ways that inspires one of the goals, but also brings inspiration to all 30 of the goals that we're building into our businesses processes as well. And you know I will say on the Intel front, obviously a much bigger company, you know, many different aspects, and I was actually pretty encouraged to see their 2030 goals weren't all that dissimilar to what we're laying out for VMware so I may not have too much unique work required to build on what they've already done but yes we'll be digging into this very shortly. That's great. Congratulations on your role. Oh thank you so much. Rebecca so jumping off of what Pat had said and around culture and and making sure that these aren't just audacious goals but we can actually execute on these goals. What do you see as the biggest barrier at this moment. I want to make the point that I think investment in technology enabled partnerships to really engage civil society. I think that Pat's comments about the soul of these organizations if I use that terminology are that they do bring some really core insights and capabilities but they're not well enabled to innovate with everyone else. There are areas of investment that I would call out. We need common standards and digital platforms to help us identify who these organizations are and their capabilities so people know how to find them to engage with them. We also need scale digital infrastructure for the sector itself. Common data models common applications ways to collaborate across issues and across geographies and even sectors. We need access to affordable connectivity application services and skills development because those are still not always available. And we need new collaboration frameworks and engagement models that really recognize civil society groups as full partners of equal import to corporates and governments in the common quest to accomplish the goals. And Diego for you to sitting on your side. What are your thoughts on maybe the biggest barriers that you might see. Yes, I mean I think we need more more collaboration. As Inger was saying before there's so much data out there that that data needs to be utilized right so we need all parties to come together and share data find ways to collaborate on on on on harnessing the latest technologies to analyze that data and we need more talent also coming to the sector of sustainability. It's been actually great to see here in Silicon Valley, a new excitement around climate tech, which is a new category in Silicon Valley. And there is a growing venture capital being invested and a lot of talent coming from different technology companies that want to work on climate. But we need more. We are in the biggest crisis that humanity has ever faced. So we need all hands on deck. Every engineer, every scientist should be thinking how am I going to contribute to solving climate change. And in using human ingenuity that has brought us so many good things in the world. Now to solve this big challenge. Yeah, and just in the final minute or two we have Inger I wanted to ask you because we focused a lot on on tech, and especially in the barrier and in the US and stateside. But how do you see the challenges in emerging countries in tackling some of these issues that we talked about on the panel. You know, in a way. I think there may not be so much of an understanding how in fact, quote unquote emerging countries are better off at times because they can leapfrog on over some older technologies that they don't have landlines so forget about it so go straight to the next step. I live in Kenya, and in Kenya, as you know, they were the first to introduce mobile money some 15 years ago right and PESA. They have got really I mean they speak about silicon Savannah, please everybody come and invest. Instead of Silicon Valley the Silicon Savannah Savannah there's a lot going on there, and you have really leading bleeding edge startups and angel investors going in. You have a lot of innovation happening. I don't want to be polyanish and, and so on, but we do have what was in the early days on a very simple mobile phone platform right. You could get market data for your carrots and so you knew when you should take them to market that kind of information. So I think that emerging markets and markets that are yet to emerge actually have embraced technology more than maybe those in the hot spots of technology such as as California might realize. And so we are one global village and that's the exciting part about this. So as we all now sit in lockdown, as we all understand this pandemic as we've all learned about science and facts. Let's use the technology that let's use science and facts for making those leaps into the into the future, which are tackling these three planetary crisis that I spoke about. Yeah, I think that's a great place to end. And I want to thank everybody on the panel today on this discussion.