Konftel is urging the wider communications industry to follow its lead and take the greener route to success – after enabling customers to ‘conference with a clear climate conscience’.
With the COP26 UN climate change conference now underway in Glasgow, Konftel has issued a rallying call having become the first manufacturer of its kind to achieve Climate Neutral certification.
In an era of agile working with huge demand for conferencing and collaboration hardware, protecting the planet is just as important as connecting the world, says CMO Stefan Eriksson.
“We were the first in the collaboration devices sector to earn official Climate Neutral certification – which has been successfully extended for the second year in a row.”
Stefan Eriksson Konftel CMO
He continued: “For us, it’s not enough to simply provide innovative technology, equipment and support which helps people communicate more effectively without having to travel. We also have to pay attention to our own carbon footprint in a way which encourages others to do the same.
Cut impact at source
“The basic benefits of conferencing have always had a positive environmental impact and the technology we produce works in harmony with our climate neutral philosophy. More video meetings means less car and rail journeys, fewer flights, less-full offices, reduced gas and electricity consumption. The two strategies operate together. By choosing Konftel users really can conference with a clear climate conscience from the very first meeting.”
Climate Neutral Certified status means all greenhouse gas emissions have been offset, across all aspects of the business, from manufacturing and product packaging to transportation. Konftel continues to cut impact at source too.
Investment in worldwide carbon credits are in turn used to support controlled and certified projects across the world, such as forest conservation in Cambodia, clean electricity in Indonesia, landfill gas in the USA and also clean cookstoves in Mali.
Eriksson concluded: “Today’s hybrid working trends has triggered a huge explosion is conferencing equipment sales. But buying from Konftel ensures there is no overall impact on the planet. As world leaders gather in Glasgow to make major global changes we can all play our part, however big or small.”
More about Konftel’s climate neutral commitments can be found here and also via the official Climate Neutral website here
IRELAND PIONEERING THE WAY WITH THE WORLD’S FIRST AI PLATFORM TO ENABLE BUSINESSES COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE CHALLENGES
Future Planet, an Irish-developed Artificial Intelligence (AI) based sustainability transformation platform that is a world first in enabling businesses to map and deliver their sustainability ambitions, has been launched.
Created by software entrepreneur, Donal Daly and sustainability supply chain expert, Ingrid De Doncker, Future Planet is the only software solution of this kind on the market. The cloud-based platform maps out, and builds, a company’s sustainability journey, defining target outcomes and enabling an actionable plan. Traditionally, using a sustainability consultancy firm takes on average six weeks for in-depth analysis. Using Future Planet will reduce this to less than a day — saving time and resources.
The team have also launched a free personal carbon footprint app, available on IOS and Android, for the general public and employees working from home to assess their own CO2 emissions. This will mean companies can include their team’s homeworking in their emissions calculations.
With the country’s first carbon budget due to be announced and the gathering of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), major changes are imminent to everyday lives to bring climate change under control. Ireland has made a commitment to reach zero carbon emissions by 2050 and a 51% reduction by 2030. This requires a reduction of at least 7% per annum.
Future Planet founder Donal Daly said: “Businesses have a crucial role in meeting the net-zero target by reducing their own emissions. Almost 70 of Ireland’s largest companies have publicly signed The Low Carbon Pledge, committing to recording and reducing their carbon footprint. This is an encouraging start, but more need to get onboard. Tighter mandatory restrictions for businesses on emissions are inevitable. If not outlined at the upcoming COP26, they will be developed in the near future.
“The stakes are real for companies. Outside of climate change being a collective crisis for humankind, failure to have carbon targets in place can impact access to capital, the ability to attract new investors, retain customer loyalty and also affect attracting top talent. However, the challenge for many businesses is that they see corporate climate action as being both costly and complicated. Our mission is to be part of the solution, making it easier for companies to build a clear roadmap that will help them define and achieve their sustainability targets while delivering their commercial goals.”
The AI software has synthesised 30 main sustainability challenges that companies face into an easily understood structure. It incorporates knowledge relating to the main reference bodies and ratings agencies such as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), and other key global standards.
Future Planet’s Head of Research and Innovation Ingrid De Doncker added: “The software dramatically removes barriers for responsible business leaders who are trying to deliver sustainability projects but who struggle because of a lack of time or knowledge. Through assessment, individual journeys, and reporting, the platform discovers a company’s sustainability maturity, calculates a score, and builds an instant report to create a transformation plan. This lets all stakeholders know the actions they need to take to improve and meet their targets.”
Speaking on the launch of Future Planet, Norman Crowley, CEO of Cool Planet Group said: “Climate change is the critical challenge for our planet, we know that. For more than a decade we have been helping companies reduce their emissions, and we are really excited about what Future Planet brings to help solve that problem. The approach is unique, and recognises that reducing emissions doesn’t necessarily mean reducing profits. In fact it shows that the opposite can be true by using AI to help a business grow while reducing its impact on the planet.”
The United Nations Environment Programme, Ozone Secretariat’s pioneering ‘Reset Earth’ platform returns today, with the launch of an immersive single player mobile game for Android and iOS. Building on the plot of the highly successful Reset Earth original animation film, which premiered on World Education Day, and was subsequently watched more than 710,000 times, the game invites players to immerse themselves in a time-travel adventure in which they race against time on a mission to save the planet and what’s left of human life.
The Reset Earth animation film and game uses the power of storytelling and immersive gameplay to educate and inspire Gen Z and gamers of all ages about the fundamentals of protecting the ozone layer and the environment. To date, the animation film has received vast national, mainstream, environmental and entertainment press support worldwide and has generated an impressive social media engagement amongst teens with over 1,200 mentions and around 41M impressions on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. A great outreach so far, particularly as young people under 24 make up 95% of the animation viewers on Instagram, while on Facebook, 67% of those watching the Reset Earth animation were under 35 years old.
Meg Seki, Acting Executive Secretary of the Ozone Secretariat, said, “The release of the game is a fantastic addition to the Reset Earth animation. Safeguarding the ozone layer and the environment for future generations is a big job – but one that can be achieved, if we listen to the science and work together.”
Reset Earth Storyline
Set in a dystopian post-apocalyptic world in 2084, where the ozone layer has been completely ruined and human life is under threat from an unstoppable virus called “The Grow”, Reset Earth tells the exciting story of three teenagers who team up in an epic time-travel adventure and race against time in a mission to save the planet and what’s left of human life.
In search of answers, our heroes travel through time, and across multiple landscapes, to critical historical moments in the story of the mysterious ‘ozone layer’, attempting to unlock the secrets of the past to save themselves, the ozone layer and the future of the planet from impending doom. Along the way, they will learn the importance of the ozone layer in protecting the health wellbeing of the planet, as well as the power of working together to achieve what might at first seem impossible. To save the ozone layer, they must jump back in time to ensure the signing of the Montreal Protocol agreement.
Rooted in science, the fictional story and game present a dramatized picture of what Earth could have been like if the world had not acted to protect the ozone layer and signed the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer in 1987.
Reset Earth Key Gameplay Features
Reset Earth is a single player platform game, combining a retro graphics style and hand-drawn artwork and is aligned with the film’s storyline. Set across 4 stages of challenging immersive platform gameplay, each representing a time zone jump in the animated series, Reset Earth challenges players to truly immerse themselves in the world of Reset Earth, unlocking puzzles and discovering clues and learning about environmental history and the science of protecting the planet.
Produced and developed by Rooftop on behalf of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Ozone Secretariat, this epic family-friendly adventure allows players to unlock the three characters; Knox, Sagan or Terran, and utilise their unique game abilities as they race through time to find a way to protect the ozone layer and reset earth. By bringing together the unique abilities of each of the three characters, players will become stronger, and advance faster in their ultimate goal to save the earth, offering hours of teen and family-friendly game play.
Reset Earth begins a year-long education initiative by the Ozone Secretariat to raise awareness and inspire action among adolescents and parents about global ozone layer protection. Immersive, educational and thought-provoking, Reset Earth conveys a positive message around what can be achieved through collective action and cultivates a sense of environmental responsibility and ownership amongst the youth.
Understanding that many young people are anxious about the future state of the planet, the Reset Earth campaign aims to show them the power of science, collaboration and cooperation in solving complex global challenges.
The campaign also offers a message of hope, showing how the global community was able to come together and solve one of the most complex environmental challenges at the time, with remarkable success. It happened once, and it can happen again!
The Reset Earth mobile game can be downloaded below for Android and iOS
