Overview

November 3

When governments and their constituents develop their community’s sustainability goals, they focus on green solutions to conserve energy and curb carbon emissions. Digital modernization efforts provide paths for agencies to achieve those same sustainability outcomes while also improving efficiency, service delivery and providing the platform to ensure the community continues on its evolution to sustainment.

It’s true: The same tools that help improve internal operations and constituent experience can also play a key role in reducing agencies’ environmental impact. Moving from on-premises solutions to the cloud, for example, can help reduce government’s carbon footprint. And better data analytics can offer new insights in how agencies can streamline workflows to reduce waste.

With the right approach, sustainability doesn’t have to be a separate goal for governments. It can be woven into the fabric of the digital transformation process as an integral part of agency missions.

Join Government Technology, Infor, and AWS on November 3 at 11 a.m. Pacific/2 p.m. Eastern for an interactive 60-minute webinar to explore how state and local governments can optimize application modernization to achieve sustainability goals. During this webinar, experts will discuss:

How technology leaders can incorporate sustainable practices into IT workflows
How governments can use data to improve land conservation measures
Lessons learned on digital modernization and sustainability

Speakers

Matt Anderson

Resiliency and Sustainability Manager, City of Coral Gables

Matt Anderson is the Resiliency and Sustainability Manager with the City of Coral Gables. Matt has been with City for over 7 years. Matt’s primary responsibility includes managing the City’s sustainability and resiliency initiatives. This includes overseeing the implementation of the City's Sustainability Management Plan and working across all city departments, with residents, and the business community to develop policies/actions to reduce energy, water, waste, fuel, and greenhouse gas emissions. Matt also helps lead the City’s water quality, Micromobility and climate mitigation and adaptation efforts. Matt serves as Co-Executive Director of Keep Coral Gables Beautiful that focuses on promoting environmental sustainability and educating the community to take action every day to reduce litter from our open spaces & waterways, improve recycling efforts, and keep our City Beautiful. Matt also is the co-chair of the Florida Sustainability Director’s Network. Matt is a South Florida native and graduated from Florida International University with a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies and is a LEED AP O+M and an ENVISION Sustainability Professional.

Bob Benstead

Industry Director-Public Sector and Utilities, Infor

Bob is currently the Industry Director for Infor’s Public Sector and Utility sectors. His duties include strategic industry planning, partner relations, global industry council management, and business development. He has been in the government and utility software business for over 20 years and has held several executive roles including managing all sales and delivery related operations for various government software products. He has experience in government operations such as regulatory compliance, infrastructure management, citizen relations, and utility management. Bob has been a member of the CLEAR Regulatory committee, AWWA, APWA, IAM, and has been a guest lecturer for the University of Wisconsin’s Department of Engineering Professional Development Program and Colorado State University.

Amit Bajaj

Sustainability Business Advisor, AWS

As part of AWS Global Sustainability team, Amit is responsible for executing the AWS Sustainability Strategy, driving operational efficiency and building sustainability partnerships with AWS’s customers. In his 18 years of industry experience, Amit has taken up consulting, professional services and sales engineering roles. Optimization and efficiency gains are always on top priorities on his projects. That led Amit to sustainability domain. Amit has been working on AWS Migrations and Sustainability for last 4 years. Amit is passionate about using his experience in business, science and engineering to analyze how organizations innovate, develop and market products; consume energy and natural resources; and produce waste streams; to find ways to bring businesses closer to environmental sustainability.

William (Bill) Rials, Ph.D. — Moderator

Senior Fellow, Center for Digital Government

William (Bill) Rials, Ph.D., is a professor and associate director (department chair) of the Tulane University School of Professional Advancement IT and Cybersecurity Program, where he focuses on continually delivering and updating the program curriculum based on innovative and emerging technologies. Before transitioning to academia and higher education, he had a diverse gov tech career delivering value to state agencies, local governments, and law enforcement agencies throughout the state of Mississippi. He has served in CIO, CTO, and CISO roles for local governments and also in various leadership positions within the state of Mississippi’s IT organization as a deputy to the state CIO. Dr. Rials holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Belhaven University, a master’s degree in computer information systems and cybersecurity from Missouri State University, as well as a Ph.D. in higher education administration and public administration from Jackson State University. His dissertation research involved the critical factors that affect the adoption of cloud services within the public sector. He is a noted expert in the IT and cybersecurity space and is frequently quoted by national media outlets. He is also a frequent contributor to national IT government organizations such as NASTD and NASCIO.

Webinar

Sustainability is More Than a Buzzword: Achieving Environmental Goals Through Digital Modernization