How IT will play a critical role in addressing climate change with Bill St. Arnaud

One of the greatest threats to our future society and economy is global warming. The bad news is that IT is increasingly a significant contributor to green house gas emissions. But the good news is that IT can play a critical role in helping reduce its own footprint and that of society in general. New Internet architectures and technologies such as clouds and virtualization will be essential in achieving reduced emissions. gCommerce and de-materialization provide opportunities for the biggest impact on climate change. Canada is well positioned to be a world leader in this area because of our abundance of clean energy and proximity to the US market. Bill St. Arnaud will tell us how Canadian IT can capitalize on its strengths to address this growing threat.

Bill St. Arnaud is the Chief Research Officer for CANARIE Inc., Canada's Advanced Internet Development Organization. Responsible for the coordination and implementation of Canada's next generation optical Internet initiative (CA*net 4), Bill was also the principal architect of the User Controlled LightPath concept of applying Service Oriented Architecture to network elements, allowing users to create their own Internet network topologies and architectures fully integrated with specific application and instrument needs.

Currently he is involved with a Green IT broadband and cyber-infrastructure initiative to build a zero-carbon next generation Internet to reduce CO2 emissions. Part of this initiative is to encourage the use of carbon rewards rather than using carbon taxes to encourage consumer to reduce their carbon footprint through the provision of free fiber to the home and other free Internet services and applications.

Previously Bill was President and founder of a network and software engineering firm (TSA ProForma Inc) that developed wide area network client/server systems for use primarily in the financial and information business fields.