Last week, at San Francisco's new California Academy of Sciences museum, IBM gathered a host of industry leaders to discuss how IT can help companies green much more than their data centers.

The company made a host of announcements, including the development of next-generation lithium ion batteries, a superefficient water-cooled supercomputer, a partnership with the city of San Francisco to monitor and improve wastewater handling, and the launch of its Green Sigma Coalition, which aims to address the environmental impacts of a company’s operations, ranging from the data center and office facilities to retail space and manufacturing plants.

At a day-long retreat, industry leaders from the Coalition and beyond got together to have open and frank discussions about how these diverse companies can work together for their mutual benefit, as well as the benefit of the environment.

The end of the day brought a series of presentations and panel discussions highlighting some of the developments from the Summit. First, we have Rich Lechner, IBM's Vice President of Energy and Environment, offering an overview of the day's events.

The first group discussion, entitled "Sustainability and Energy Reduction Across All Business Operations," brought together five members of the Green Sigma Coalition to talk about the impacts sustainability projects are having on business operations.

The panel consisted of:
Dave Lubowe, Global and Americas Operations Strategy Leader, IBM Global Business Services;
Clay Nesler, VP Global Energy & Sustainability, Johnson Controls;
Robert Johnson, President & CEO of ESS;
Scott Bolick, Vice President of Sustainability at SAP; and
John White, Director of Energy Management and Sustainability Solutions, Eaton.

The second group discussion of the night, "The Need for Focus on Commercial Sector Energy Efficiency," featured IBM's Rich Lechner; Lynda Ziegler, the senior Vice President for Customer Service at Southern California Edison; and Lewis Foster, the IT manager for Columbia County, Georgia. The panelists discussed what business needs are driving companies and municipalities to energy efficiency projects, and how organizations and their customers are benefiting from successful implementation of those projects.

Both panels were moderated by Celia Canfield, Development Director for West Coast Green.

This podcast offers highlights of IBM's Green and Beyond Summit; IBM has also posted the video from the event: you can see that at http://www.centerline.net/GB_Jukebox.