How Green Is Your CIO? That’s the Focus This Week in Australia

I’m at The Green CIO conference, presented by CIO Magazine Australia, in Sydney this week. This is an innovative conference that Lawson became involved with as soon as we heard about it. The conference places a sustainability focus on a broad range of information technology topics, including IT strategy, hardware, software, data centers, and change management. I’ll be speaking on the role that business software can play in helping companies manage their CSR programs.

I’m not surprised this type of conference is taking place in Australia. From what I can tell based on a survey of Lawson’s Australian customers and by reading business publications from the region, Australian businesses seem to be ahead of the curve when it comes to CSR. For example, telecommunications and IT provider, Telstra has issued an Annual CSR Report since 2003 that rivals those produced by an investor relations team. It details the company’s social activity in relation to its customers, employees, communities, and marketplace. It’s a bit long, but worth the read.

I’m excited about the opportunity to interact with a group IT professionals who are thinking about sustainability. I’m sure it will be a great learning experience. I’ll report back on the conference next week.

Jeff