It was only a couple of months ago that I dinged Microsoft for not taking Green issues seriously enough in a blog titled Where is Microsoft’s Green Story? Well its been in the hopper for a while, but I wanted to make sure I credited Microsoft with getting its act together before the end of the year. There is some rather splendid news to report.
Rob Bernard has been appointed to the role of Chief Environmental Strategist for Microsoft. This is a new role for the company, and Rob will be responsible for defining and implementing a global strategy for the company’s environmental efforts. Rob will be reporting to Scott Charney.
Microsoft created this new role to assess the company’s environmental impact and opportunities at all levels, including: working with product groups to create technology innovations in software and hardware that can help enable customers to minimize their impact on the environment, assuring responsible business practices that work to reduce the company’s direct and indirect environmental impact, and working with partners in industry, government and non-government to engage on global environmental issues.
Rob has held various positions during his 10 year career at Microsoft; most recently he was general manager for Microsoft’s Developer and Platform Evangelism team where he managed relationships with over 100 of the world’s largest Independent Software Vendors.
Anyone that doubts commitment should look at who has been appointed. GM of developer evangelism is a huge deal at Microsoft. This is far from a “ticklist” appointment. I will be talking to Rob soon, and will let you know what his plans are.
Happy Christmas Microsoft! Thanks for taking this seriously. We appreciate the contributions you’re going to make.
We are indeed taking this very seriously. I look forward to talking with you.
Hope you saw the news about our work with the Clinton Foundation and the world’s largest 40 cities to create a carbon tracking and improvement tool. We have lots of very cool work to do across the entire industry, so stay tuned …….