Event
Sustainable IT inspiration day
Faced with the climate crisis and the ever-growing environmental footprint of digital technology, it becomes imperative to rethink our digital world to carry more inclusive and ethical values for all human beings and to reduce our impact on the planet.
That is why we are organizing this first edition of our Sustainable IT Day on June 3, 2022 at Econocom in our office at Zaventem.
During this event you will enjoy a keynote by our partner ISIT-BE, the Belgian Institute for Sustainable IT. You will participate to a round table discussion where pioneers share their vision and strategies on sustainable IT – share best practices & tips with you.
Moreover, learn during the practical break-out sessions how you can get started yourself or listen to testimonials from Belfius, IBA & the CIRB_CIBG. You will discover everything you need to know about sustainable IT, eco-designed digital services, as-a-service & leasing solutions, refurbished ICT & trade-in opportunities.
...during the keynote, round table with Belfius & CIRB and break-out sessions followed by a networking lunch.
From 11.30 am until 12.30pm, you can participate to 3 break-out sessions (20 min each). There will be 4 parallel break-out rooms so you can participate to 3 out of the 4 different topics presented.
Digital transformation brings lots of economic, environmental and social benefits. Nevertheless, the role that IT services play in the GHG emissions of organisations is vastly underestimated, along with several other negative impacts.
Through the adoption of sustainable IT best practices (purchasing of equipment and services, lifecycle management, eco-design, attention for digital accessibility…), organisations can reduce their costs, gain a competitive advantage, contribute actively to their CSR strategy and engage their staff to succeed their transformation in a durable manner.
In order to combat global warming and e-waste, companies need to tackle the problem at its source by limiting their demand for new ICT devices to be manufactured in an unsustainable way. What can you do as a company buying ICT devices to reduce your carbon footprint? You can significantly reduce your impact during this production phase by maximising the lifespan of your devices.
We will discuss 7 concrete ways to achieve this:
You will participate to a round table discussion where pioneers (Belfius, CIRB_CIBG & IBA) share their vision and strategies on sustainable IT. They will share best practices & tips with you.
Choose 1 of these 4 breaking rooms :
1) Ecodesign by Simon Uyttendaele of Aeonics
2) Sustainable IT solutions by the director of the Second Life IT portfolio at Econocom
3) Follow-up on the testimonials by Belfius, CIRB_CIBG & IBA
4) Get to know ISIT-BE with Olivier Vergeynst
Choose 1 of these 4 breaking rooms :
1) Ecodesign by Simon Uyttendaele of Aeonics
2) Sustainable IT solutions by the director of the Second Life IT portfolio at Econocom
3) Follow-up on the testimonials by Belfius, CIRB_CIBG & IBA
4) Get to know ISIT-BE with Olivier Vergeynst
Choose 1 of these 4 breaking rooms :
1) Ecodesign by Simon Uyttendaele of Aeonics
2) Sustainable IT solutions by the director of the Second Life IT portfolio at Econocom
3) Follow-up on the testimonials by Belfius, CIRB_CIBG & IBA
4) Get to know ISIT-BE with Olivier Vergeynst
I am the Director of the Belgian Institute for Sustainable IT, sister of the French INR.
Together with our international community of 170+ members, we continuously create and improve tools, guides and training to help organisations move towards a more sustainable IT as part of their digital transformation. In 2021, we published the WeNR report. I also took part in 2019 in the study Environmental footprint of the digital world and in the iNum study in 2020.
20+ years’ experience in international companies like JPMorgan, Euroclear and Ingenico. As IT Director, I have led technical teams in Brussels, Paris, Amsterdam, London, New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong in financial and payment systems’ telecommunications, as well as in IT operations, infrastructure and application development.
I am the director of our leasing portfolio at Econocom and member of the Board of Directors at Association Belge de Leasing / Belgische Lease Vereniging (ABLV).
At Econocom we focus on walking the talk about green IT : "the longer a laptop or smartphone can be used, the less new ones need to be manufactured and therefore the less electronic waste is produced".
We focus on 2 main aspects about green IT :
Financial institutions have a key role to play in reaching the Green Deal targets set by the EU. True to its purpose “Meaningful & Inspiring for Belgian Society. Together.”, Belfius has stepped up to the plate to be a driving force in the transition towards a sustainable Belgian economy and society.
We want to put our clients in the driver’s seat to realize their ambitions in tackling societal challenges and sustainable transition, by providing them with advice, guidance and a range of meaningful bank and insurance solutions. We also endeavour to “walk the talk” in our own internal operations, as we have done for some years now, steadily reducing our own carbon emissions for instance. Having decided to work on the ESG topics that are in the scope of the Technology department, Belfius was one of the founding members of ISIT-BE.
To better initiate and co-ordinate the activities this entails, I took up the role of Sustainable Technology Manager. I have been working in the bank for quite some time (during which ‘technology’ was part of the job in some way or other) and I consider myself lucky to be able to contribute to a diverse but highly relevant topic.
I am one of the first 30 experts acknowledged by the network of Institutes for Sustainable IT and founder of Aeonics, a deeptech software company.
After my PhD in AI along with 10 years of experience in IT architecture for international institutions and large companies, I decided to focus on system efficiency and designed a middleware deeply rooted in sustainable IT principles. Aeonics is the result of 8 years of R&D with multiple success stories. Simple, Accessible, Sustainable, Efficient.
I strongly believe that technological sovereignty is a key factor for long term autonomy, independence and resilience for companies. The right tool to deploy eco-designed digital services is the ultimate way to empower IT services to build our digital future.
The ecological transition presents the digital sector with a double challenge.
It is gradually forcing it to become aware of its impact on our ecosystems and to reduce its effects.
But it also provides it with the opportunity to demonstrate its full potential to support the transitions that are coming (energy, industry, mobility, agri-food, etc.).
The purpose of responsible digital is to support this movement of meeting between the ecological transition and the digital transition.
It is our duty at IBA to participate actively to the green it transition. It is time to align the corporate story with the social issues. Companies must strive to generate less negative impact on the environment and biodiversity, more social justice, and a fair, sustainable economy.
Global e-waste generation has increased by 9.2 Mt since 2014 and is expected to rise to 74.7 Mt by 2030 - a near doubling in just 16 years. The growing amount of e-waste is primarily fueled by higher rates of EEE consumption, short life cycles, and few repair options. Of this staggering amount of waste, only 17.4% of e-waste is recycled.
In the last five years, the amount of e-waste has grown three times faster than the world's population, and 13% faster than the world's GDP. This sharp increase puts considerable pressure on the environment and health, and demonstrates the urgent need to combine the 4th industrial revolution with a circular economy.
Source: The Global E-waste Monitor, 2020
Leuvensesteenweg 510 bus 80,
1930 Zaventem