Kevin Hagen, Vice President Environment, Social & Governance (ESG) Strategy at Iron Mountain.
When we hold ourselves to the higher expectation of delivering these innovations, we actually are finding new ways to do things that are better for the business, better for the environment, and better for the community. It actually isn’t a trade-off: you don’t have to choose between doing the right thing, and doing the green or socially responsible thing.
Renewable energy is a great example. In the early days it was perceived as more expensive and had all kinds of challenges. But when we work together, as individual organizations and collectively through organizations like the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance and the Future of Internet Power working group to develop thought across the industry, we can all take advantage of those efforts.
We realized that over the long term, renewable energy had huge advantages over fossil fuel in the cost of energy. Renewable energy suppliers offer long-term fixed price contracts with a lot less risk factored into the pricing, and the price stability that our customers love. There was this sudden realization that what we thought was more expensive is actually the cheapest.
There’s just so many ways in which the old stereo-type of the trade-off is about to get blown up. And we need to hold ourselves to the higher standard.
“Renewable energy suppliers offer long-term fixed price contracts with a lot less risk factored into the pricing, and the price stability that our customers love.” – Kevin Hagen, Iron Mountain
This is an incredibly innovative, creative industry. What we know is we’re probably thinking too small. We need to keep making these improvements but also think about the bigger picture, so that we can keep finding the breakthrough opportunities that change the picture.