BICSI this week released the following statement: “In November of 2011, BICSI’s Board of Directors voted to become a Sustaining Member of the Sustainable Technologies Environment Program (STEP) Foundation. At that time BICSI joined InfoComm, CompTIA, and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) as Sustaining Members in STEP.
“In 2012 the Communications Cable & Connectivity Association (CCCA) also joined STEP as a Supporting Member. Becoming a member of STEP was a continuation of BICSI’s effort to leverage the increasing focus on sustainability that we began with the Green Building Technology Alliance, and had the promise of enabling BICSI to add programs, publications and services to our educational and credentialing portfolio.
“The original STEP Foundation concept was a fairly simple one. Its Mission was to bring sustainability to the process of planning, designing, integrating and operating technology systems, as well as to reduce the long-term environmental impact from technology deployment. The fulcrum of STEP would be a STEP sustainability rating system, and STEP membership would require a manageable start-up investment by BICSI.
“Over the past months the STEP Board of Directors has been involved in a series of long term strategic planning activities. During this process it has become evident to us that STEP’s direction was changing and the new direction was significantly different from the original STEP concept and not consistent with our BICSI sustainability vision and not in the best interest of our members. Given these differing visions the BICSI Board voted during the Winter Conference to have BICSI withdraw from the STEP Foundation, effective immediately. Our partner associations in STEP have been notified.
“Although BICSI will no longer be a STEP member, early indications are that BICSI’s withdrawal from STEP will not hurt our relationships with InfoComm, TIA, CompTIA and CCCA, and we intend to continue working with them in the future.”
Further details on this announcement will appear in the March/April issue of CNS.