Built to Last: What Does It Mean to Build AI Infrastructure Responsibly?
September 21, 2026 | 09:30 AM – 12:00 PM | New York
AI infrastructure is being planned, financed, built, and operated by a diverse set of organizations across the value chain. While each faces different priorities and constraints, the environmental impacts and outcomes are interconnected. Infrastructure developers, energy providers, cloud platforms, software companies, investors, and climate experts each bring a distinct perspective on what responsible growth requires.
The discussion will focus on real-world examples from the front lines of digital infrastructure development and on understanding where views converge and diverge across the value chain. Participants will be encouraged to share not only successes and emerging best practices, but also unresolved challenges, competing priorities, and lessons learned.
The aim is to leave the room with a sharper understanding of the most material blind spots, a clearer view of where responsibility sits, and practical opportunities for collaboration.
Speakers
Gwen Safa
Global Head of Sustainable & Transition Finance Advisory
Barclays
Miguel Fontela Martinez
Head of Energy, Innovation & Data Center Services
NTT DATA
Elias Habbar-Baylac
Global Sustainable AI Strategy & Infrastructure Innovation Lead
Cisco
Miranda Gardiner
Executive Director
iMasons Climate Accord
Co-hosts
Rae Hegarty
Chief Delivery Officer
Sustainable Markets Initiative
Mireia Vilaplana
Global Head, Climate & Nature
NTT DATA
Lena Pyatkovsky
Director, Tech, Media & Telco
Climeworks
Program
09:30 aM–10:00 aM
Registration and coffee
Check-in and connect with fellow participants over coffee before the formal program begins.
10:00 AM–10:10 AM
Opening remarks
Welcome, objectives for the session, and framing of the key environmental challenges and opportunities associated with the current wave of AI infrastructure growth.
10:10 AM–10:40 AM
Scene-setting panel with Q&A
Hear perspectives from across the AI infrastructure ecosystem on how environmental impacts are shaping decision-making, priorities, and opportunities for collaboration.
10:40 aM–11:25 aM
Roundtable working sessions
Participate in facilitated small-group discussions to explore key environmental challenges, identify practical solutions, and share perspectives across different parts of the value chain.
11:25 aM–11:40 AM
Table reports
Each table will summarize key insights, priorities, and ideas, and share them back with the broader group.
11:40 aM–12:00 PM
Closing
Reflect on key takeaways, areas of alignment, and opportunities for continued dialogue and action.
Previous Events
Real progress happens when leaders come together. From Climate Week NYC to COP, Climeworks is proud to convene business, sustainability, and policy leaders to advance the path to net zero and explore the critical role of carbon removal in achieving global climate goals.
Leaders in Climate and Health at Climate Week NYC 2025
About Us
NTT DATA
NTT DATA is a $30+ billion business and technology services leader, serving 75% of the Fortune Global 100. The company is committed to accelerating client success and positively impacting society through responsible innovation. It is one of the world's leading AI and digital infrastructure providers, with unmatched capabilities in enterprise-scale AI, cloud, security, connectivity, data centers, and application services. NTT DATA is part of NTT Group, which invests more than $3 billion annually in research and development.
Sustainable Markets Initiative
The Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) is the world’s go-to private sector organisation for sustainable transition; characterised by our unique brand of ‘private sector diplomacy’. With the vision of our founder, His Majesty King Charles III, and our unique convening power, the SMI facilitates action between world leaders and CEOs to position sustainability at the heart of global value creation.
Together, we seek to mobilize the trillions of dollars required to achieve a sustainable future. Investment at this scale requires global systems-level change with a default sustainable orientation across markets, industries and supply chains.
Climeworks Solutions
Climeworks Solutions is a leading high-quality carbon removal provider, combining decades of expertise in Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology with holistic carbon removal solutions.
Climeworks offers an end-to-end enterprise service for premium carbon removal. Its tailored portfolios of nature-based and engineered solutions are designed to maximize business value and minimize risks. The company runs the world's first two DAC plants in Iceland, demonstrating its core commitment to high-quality carbon removal that is backed by over 15 years of pioneering research, development, and deployment.
By advancing the most reliable solutions in the market, Climeworks accelerates the global transition to net zero, unlocking economic value for businesses, governments, and society.
