On Monday, CA Chairman Bill McCracken kicked off CA’s CNBC Carbon Council participation with a live appearance on CNBC's ‘The Call.'  Bill discussed our internal effort to reduce our carbon footprint (headed up by our Office of Sustainability) as well as the efforts of our ecoSoftware business unit, which we've been writing more about here on this blog. 

The CNBC Carbon Council is a gathering of executives discussing environmental and business issues through interviews and blogs leading up to and during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP15) meeting. CNBC is collecting stories and insights in a special online section called The Carbon Challenge, and conducting on-air interviews with participating executives. 

In the way of brief background on COP15 (learn more about it here, or click here for the latest Google News search), world powers will convene in December in Copenhagen to finalize a global plan to significantly cut back on carbon emissions. The previous agreement – called the Kyoto Protocol – runs through 2012.  Originally adopted in 1997 and entered into force in 2005, 187 UN member “states” (countries) have signed the Kyoto agreement, with the U.S. as one of the most notable exceptions.

At this point, most of the discussion leading up to the event suggests there's little chance for a legally binding deal in Copenhagen.  But, there is general consensus that at the very least the meetings will result in a framework and timeline with a goal to finalize the agreement in the coming months.

At CA, we believe that IT will be the primary driver to solving many of the issues facing energy consumption and sustainability. As Bill McCracken points out in his broadcast interview, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.”  And while governments and politicians work out the details of a new climate change agreement, organizations can take steps today to address the practical realities of reducing their impact on the environment – including implementing IT solutions to measure energy use and activity that causes carbon emissions, report on those emissions, set targets and take effective action to reduce emissions. 

Be sure to visit CNBC’s site covering The Carbon Challenge regularly over the coming weeks for more insights from CA and other Carbon Council members.