Days Two and Three at Davos

Day Two (Thursday) – What a day. Bright sunlight. No wind. So, I made the right decision and concluded that anyone who didn’t go skiing yesterday doesn’t have a life. It was fantastic. Davos has the reputation for this sport for a reason!! OH, sorry, now I remember, I don’t have a life. But the dream still lives.

Thursday started at a 7am breakfast with the President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and some of her staff. Here they showed a zero carbon approach to water breakage…yep, sunlight to hydrogen and oxygen. And they can do it in a trash can, and the water can be salt, or for that matter, sewage. How’s that for an opening salvo?

I met with sustainability leaders from about six non-governmental organizations and academia. One said “you are the first VP I have met at Intel since Gordon Moore and I discussed why I sued Intel over water usage.” Every one of them said that we were certainly a leader in sustainability and wanted to work with us to make it better. It is energizing to have the world’s sustainability leaders be knowledgeable about Intel’s operations and the quality of our work. Thank you to all who have made that so.

A major (think BIG) company’s VP of Sustainability (and member of the company’s Board) asked if we would like to team with them on a global project that would impact all of the semiconductor industry. Fits into our mission…I told her I’d be back to her shortly. Exciting idea. I look forward to learning more about it.

I had an enjoyable dinner last night with twelve leading international journalists and Intel Chairman Craig Barrett. The conversation was engaging and thoughtful, and the food was great.

Day Three (Friday) – At a session this morning on “Rising to the Challenge of Copenhagen,” I heard an interesting twist on the cap and trade idea…is there a way to reverse auction the funds being generated by auctioning off carbon credits, the thought being that companies would bid on how much carbon reduction could be achieved for a set amount of dollars, and the payment would be made when the results were verified by an unbiased source. Would a politician actually give up the right to direct currency?

Earlier today I had just 12 minutes to get from a hotel on the “far end” of Davos back to the conference center. The session I was exiting had been organized by the World Economic Forum, so they organized vans to assure that the participants could get back to the main conference center. I was on the phone when I walked outside (feeble excuse for what I’m about to write), saw the van, and climbed in. At that time, Craig Mundie turned to me and said, “Will, this is the Microsoft shuttle.” He was quite gracious, would not let me leave, made room, and they gave me a ride to the center. Embarrassing…geez, you think?

And finally, I had a chance to record another YouTube blog today. Check it out …