By Christine Diamente, Head of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability

Rio+20 - United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development

A unique group of extraordinary leaders called “Friends of Rio+20” supported by the World Economic Forum, has come together this week to share a message with the participants of the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development:  it is time for governments to put sustainability at the top of their economic agendas, and it cannot be done alone—we need innovative partnerships.   Alcatel-Lucent’s CEO Ben Verwaayen is among key signatories alongside the leaders of other organizations such as Nestle, Infosys, the International Trade Union Confederation, WWF, Green Growth Institute and more.

What is unique about this World Economic Forum initiative is that each of these signatories is already participating in innovative, cross-disciplinary partnerships responding to today’s sustainability challenge.  GreenTouch for example, is among the innovative partnerships presented to dramatically improve network energy efficiency.  By bringing together more than 50 leaders in academic, government and industry research from around the world, this consortium is inventing and delivering radical new approaches to energy efficiency for the ICT industry.  It is creating a new innovation model for ICT sustainability and paving the way for the digital economy at a moment when inaction is not an option.

I firmly believe that to be a leader in sustainability, we must reach out to our partners- customers, businesses, NGOs, members of civil society and public stakeholders- to achieve our own goal of making communications more sustainable, more affordable and more accessible.  Our commitment to “Friends of Rio+20”, initiatives such as GreenTouch and lightRadio is but a few examples of how Alcatel-Lucent is driving sustainable innovation.  We know it cannot be done alone and we need new models of action.

Government leaders also have a key role to play—they need to invest in the digital economy by enabling access to broadband infrastructure and services for countries around the globe.   The potential of ICT must be leveraged when defining the future sustainable development drivers and actions for our planet.

I have said it before, and I’ll say it again– ultimately, the challenge is ours together.

Learn more about our sustainability activities at  www.alcatel-lucent.com/sustainability