The Green Options Interview: Denise Persson, Genesys Conferencing

Genesys Conferencing is global provider of web, audio, and video conferencing services. It does business in 25 countries, including with nearly half of the Fortune Global 500 companies. Genesys has also made a strong commitment to energy efficiency and to cutting its global warming emissions. Last month, it appointed a Green Officer to drive and manage a sustainable development strategy and implement the ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems Standard.

This standard is a series of international benchmarks on environmental management. It providers a framework and structured process for a company to develop its own green goals, establish a planning phase, implementation phase, and measurement and management procedures. Its development came about as a result of the Earth Summit in 1992.

I was interested in why and how a teleconferencing company is getting so involved in efficiency and fighting global warming. The public relations and marketing possibilities don’t seem as obvious as they would be for a retailer or for a brand more well-known by the general public.

So I spoke with Genesys’ Executive Vice President of Global Marketing, Denise Persson, on May 30th.

Green Options: Why is Genesys Conferencing focusing so many resources on efficiency?

Denise Persson: It all started about five years ago. As a European company, we are more environmentally conscious. I’m Swedish, and in Sweden we recycle every single thing. We would never dream of throwing a piece of paper in the trash. So this direction for the company was very natural for a lot of us. We wanted to do all that we could to make it more efficient and more responsible in terms of climate change.