CSRwire, the world's number one resource for corporate social responsibility news as well as the hub for an influential community that has realized the value and necessity of Corporate Social Responsibility and sustainability, today named the "Sustainability Virtual Summits: Smart ICT" event as their Pick of the Day (www.csrwire.com).  The event has a CSRwire entry at http://www.csrwire.com/archive/our_pick/261.

CSR's 'Our Picks' Archive makes it easy for you to access the results of CSRwire's selection of the most pertinent and revealing CSR-related developments from our ongoing survey of a wide range of global media outlets. Each item in the 'Our Picks' Archive has appeared on the CSRwire.com Home Page after being hand-selected by members of the CSRwire staff.

INTERNATIONAL SPONSOR COUNCIL TO SHOWCASE AT SUSTAINABILITY VIRTUAL SUMMITS: SMART ICT                  SUPPORTED BY UNITED NATIONS GLOBAL COMPACT

As part of virtual conference series, ISC, world trade organization for  corporate sponsors provides leadership platform on how the sustainability initiatives of corporations can impact the world through their sponsorship of sports, music, the arts and other lifestyle passions

Denver, Colorado: January 4, 2010 -  

The International Sponsor Council, the world trade association for corporate sponsors, will join Cisco, Orange, Alcatel-Lucent, the United Nations Global Compact and BSR in delivering Sustainability Virtual Summits: Smart ICT virtual conference and exhibition, which will launch online on March 23, 2010, is the first in a series of virtual events focusing on technologies that will impact sustainability programs. 

The conference will harness a powerful collaboration of enterprise, government, NGOs and influencer groups.  The virtual exhibition will give participating companies the opportunity to showcase Green ICT solutions, in themed halls and ICT Pavilions including the ISC Impact Pavilion which will provide insight into sustainability programs of sponsors within their respective sports, music, arts and other lifestyle sponsorships and endorsements. The ISC Impact Pavilion will also provide an opportunity for sponsors and industry leaders to share product and service information via exhibits.

 "The concept of sustainability is perhaps the most critical initiative facing the world," said Terry Cecil, ISC President and CEO. "Many of the world's leading corporations are taking a leading role in sustainability due to the critical and inherent importance to any corporation's success and value. The ISC is supporting the Sustainability Virtual Summit: Smart ICT because of its potential in creating an invaluable event that will deliver an unprecedented impact through global collaboration. Sponsors and the respective industries they support will have an opportunity to share their strategies and tactics for sustainability as well as insight on how to partner with fans around the world towards responsible existence.

Mark Barounos, President of conference organizer G2Events, said, "We are very excited to welcome the ISC as a major event supporter. The influence and reach of sponsors can have a considerable impact on the actions and mindset of fans in regard to sustainability. The ISC workshop and exhibits will provide a unique and valuable education for anyone interested in or involved in sustainability." 

The ISC and G2Events will also be launching a global virtual summit on sponsorship in the Fall of 2010. "In addition to the Sustainability Virtual Summits, The ISC is excited to be partnering with industry leader, G2Events, the ISC Sponsorship Virtual Summit to be held in the Fall of 2010," added Cecil. "The ISC is taking a leadership role by delivering the industry an innovative platform that will provide global collaboration without taxing travel budgets time constraints and speaking conflicts."

 Sustainability Virtual Summits: Smart ICT will be a telepresence and collaborative conferencing-enabled event.  ICT Pavilion Sponsors Connection Research and the Telecommunications Industry Association will host specialty virtual exhibit halls, and will moderate track and panel discussions focusing on carbon efficient management software and sustainable information and communications technologies.  ICT Smart Leader sponsors Domani, NineSigma and the Human Productivity Lab will bring their consulting expertise to the event.  Network sponsor Masergy, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), CSRwire, the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GESI), the Interactive Multimedia Collaborative Communications Alliance (IMCCA), the Silicon Valley Leadership Group (SVLG), the Carbon Free Meeting Coalition, the Green Computing Impact Organization (GCIO), the Institute for Market Transformation to Sustainability, the International Society of Sustainability Professionals, TelepresenceWorld.net, and Terrapass are among the initial supporting organizations of the conference.  For more details on how you can get involved, please contact the organizers at info@g2events.com.   

Visit www.SustainabilityVirtualSummits.com to learn more about the events, or to take a demo tour of the virtual event environment.  Speaking, sponsoring and exhibiting opportunities at the Sustainability Virtual Summits: Smart ICT event will be similar to those at a physical event, but without the cost and trouble of travel, or the associated greenhouse gas emissions.  Registration as an Attendee to the Sustainability Virtual Summits is free of charge.

About the International Sponsor Council

The International Sponsor Council (ISC) is the world trade association for corporate sponsors. ISC core members are corporations that sponsor programs including sports, music, the arts, entertainment, education and other mediums of consumer engagement.  Our mission is to promote sponsor value and protect the collective interests of sponsors.  Through the efforts of the organization and its members the effectiveness of sponsorship is improved. The ISC provides knowledge sharing, advocacy and networking for executives involved in sponsorship. The organization is currently focusing on the development of a professional certification program, ROI measurement standard and sponsor sustainability/CSR initiative programs for the industry. Founding Members include AT&T, Bank of America, Bridgestone Firestone, The Coca-Cola Company, Coca-Cola Enterprises, FirstRand Group (South Africa), Honda Motor Co., MasterCard, Panasonic and Visa.  For  more information on the ISC, please contact Terry Cecil by phone 678-240-9494 or by email tcecil@sponsorcouncil.com, or visit www.sponsorcouncil.org.

About G2Events Inc.

G2Events is a professional organizer of virtual events.  Advances in virtual event platform technologies, coupled with a shift in personal attitudes towards, and corporate embracing of, virtual world interactions, are changing the rules of business, culture and society.  G2Events, building on the long-standing experience of its team members in the physical conference and exhibition arena, is taking a lead in the professional organization of virtual conferences and tradeshows.  The company stages its own virtual events, and also produces virtual events for enterprises and partner organizations.  In addition to having a thorough familiarity with virtual event platforms, the G2Events team includes experts in content management, speaker coordination, virtual booth design and content management, and event marketing, with a specific focus on digital marketing via new media and social networks.  For more information, or to plan a virtual event for your organization or business, please contact Mark Barounos, CEO (mbarounos@g2events.com) or visit www.G2Events.com.

By Nicola Leske and Tarmo Virki

GENEVA (Reuters) - Two months ahead of the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen, the world body's telecoms arm urged governments and companies to use information technology to fight global warming.

"Information technologies contribute 2 to 3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. But they can also reduce emissions in other sectors by at least 15 percent," said Ban Ki-Moon, United Nations Secretary-General, at a telecoms industry event in Geneva.

"This means they can be significant ... in our fight against climate change," he added.

One of the most obvious uses for information technology is video conferencing, which allows people to attend meetings without traveling, thus reducing their carbon footprint.

"When we consider that every week there are international conferences involving thousands of participants, virtual events ... would have a huge impact on emissions," Malcolm Johnson, Director of ITU's Telecommunication Standardization Bureau said.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is one of the specialized agencies of the United Nations and is lobbying Copenhagen negotiators to get more mention of ICT in the texts being prepared.

"It's a struggle just to get ICT mentioned," Johnson said.

But there's more to what is dubbed green ICT than virtual meetings.

Indian network technology firm VNL for example focuses on building cheap solar-powered GSM base stations in rural areas in emerging markets like India.

So far, they have delivered the first of 100 base stations but VNL sees major growth ahead.

"By the end of this year we will be on three continents," VNL chairman Rajiv Mehrotra told Reuters in an interview.

TEXTING TO REACH FARMERS

Ban called on chief executives to ensure government officials understood how ICT could address the climate threat and "usher in a new green economy."

He said text messages are being used as new tool to help farmers in Africa. Mobile phone companies and other partners had installed 5,000 new weather stations across Africa.

"The weather stations will monitor the impact of climate change. When there is news, we will be able to transmit it immediately to farmers' mobile phones. We hope to reach as many African farmers as possible -- because seven out of ten Africans rely on farming to survive," Ban said.

Laina Raveendran Greene, CEO of environmental tech consultancy GetIt said: "going green is about getting rid of inefficiencies and that makes business sense."

Mike Lazaridis, CEO of BlackBerry, agreed: "Green is all about efficiency ... and Blackberry has always been focused on conserving spectrum.

"Because when you conserve spectrum you conserve power, your battery lasts longer, you conserve costs and capex," he added.

The ICT sector needs to look at its own carbon issues too. A datacentre for a search engine company can consume as much energy as a city the size of Geneva, the ITU has said.

"First we need to start with ourselves," said Jianzhou Wang, Chairman and Chief Executive of China Mobile.

"We used to believe that the telecom industry has low energy consumption, however, following the construction of numerous base stations and abundant utilization of servers, power consumption has become one of the major operating costs and need to be lowered," he said.

(Additional reporting by Georgina Prodhan in London)

http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE5974A120091008?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=10522&sp=true

TIA is the respected trade association for the ICT industry, and has developed more than 3,000 ANSI-accredited standards including Ethernet, CDMA technology, cell towers, public safety radios, healthcare ICT, vehicular telematics, intelligent transport systems and more. TIA is a prominent advocate on behalf of its members for universal broadband connectivity, innovation, accessibility and free trade. TIA's five strategic pillars include Government Affairs, Standards, Environment, Networking and Intelligence. Find out more about TIA membership by contacting lmagruder@tiaonline.org.