Robert Bernard of Microsoft

In this episode of On Paper, Bernard discusses how technology and software can be leveraged to drive real change in the global environment. Bernard outlines three areas of focus where Microsoft can make a positive impact regarding sustainability by: enabling significant energy efficiency in and through the use of IT, accelerating scientific breakthroughs in research on environmental based issues, and becoming responsible environmental leaders on a daily basis through the way they do business.

“We went from a world where we had a lot of interested people, to a world where now all of our field staff who talk to our customers and many of our engineers who are writing software, are thinking about and acting on the new vision and paradigm that we’re moving toward,” Bernard explains. “We’re taking this incredible creative power that the company has, and we’re getting people to start thinking and acting in an expanded dimension, with a deliberate focus on energy and environmental sustainability.”

For more information on the smart grid document referenced in this episode, please visit www.smart2020.org/.

Rob Bernard is the chief environmental strategist for Microsoft Corp. and is responsible for defining and implementing the global strategy for the company’s environmental efforts. In this role he will assess the company’s environmental impact 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 nongovernmental organizations to engage on global environmental issues.

A graduate of the Ivy League's Columbia University, Maureen Kedes spent several years as a freelance public relations and advertising writer, and as spokesperson for several major corporations including: Toshiba, Yamaha, Sharp Electronics, Con Agra Foods, and Oxford University Press. Ms. Kedes also worked as a Test Marketing Director at CBS Television and also recently served as Sr. VP of Public Relations at Fortune Broadcasting in West Hollywood.