Cancun iMasons’ Meeting

Meeting Recap:

iMasons from across LATAM came together at a meeting on Sept. 20 at DCD Connect > Cancun. The first order of business was announcing Hispanic Heritage Month September 15 – October 15, and the activities that the iMasons Hispanic/LatinX MRG have planned, led by Cyre Denny and Claudia Massey.

Plus, we announced the launch of the iMasons Mexico Chapter hosted by Foundation Partner Kio Networks and supported by Cyre and others at Schneider. This follows on the heels of iMasons new Brazil Chapter launched just last month, signaling iMasons increasing traction in LATAM. People who want to get more involved in the Mexico Chapter can contact Cyre Denny at Schneider or the Chapter chair, Kio CEO Santiago Suinaga.

The meeting then focused on one of the leading issues of our time – climate change – and our industry’s response – the iMasons Climate Accord. iMasons Executive Director, Jeff Omelchuck, provided an overview of the ICA and an update on progress.

Key takeaways:

• The ICA now has almost 180 companies on board, all committing to adopt an open standard for reporting carbon in data center power, materials, and equipment, and a maturity model to gauge and communicate progress.
• Lex Coors of Digital Realty and Anna Timme of Schneider has been appointed to the ICA Governing Body, joining the other members from AWS, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and iMasons.
• The ICA plans to launch a video series on data centers and carbon as a free resource for our industry, to get us all up-to-speed.
• ICA plans to launch work groups in the next few months to enable the community to collaborate on reducing carbon emissions.

We then heard case studies on what leading companies are doing to reduce carbon in digital infrastructure from Santiago at Kio, Kevin Kent of NZero, Agostinho Villela of Scala, and Anna Timme of Schneider Electric.

Finally, the members workshopped the question “What are the three top things ICA could do or provide to help your company move to net zero?” Answers included:

• A priority analysis showing what aspects have the biggest impact, so we know where to focus our efforts
• Evaluating existing standards and approaches, so we don’t create yet another
• The embodied carbon label
• Keep it simple!
• Build carbon into existing design tools, like Revit so that we can make smarter decisions during design

As usual, we wrapped with a group photo, the LATAM builders of the digital age posing like lucha libres!

Join iMasons as we host a  meeting in conjunction with the DCD>Connect Cancun event.

There are issues that face the industry that can be better addressed collectively – and iMasons is the platform to coordinate and focus this effort. Global iMasons initiatives, such as bridging the talent gap and addressing diversity and inclusion can be more effectively executed regionally by iMasons who understand the dynamics of that region.

Date: September 20, 2022
Local time: 16:0 – 18:00pm
Location: Cancun; in-person event