CEOs around the world are saying IT solutions are necessary to improve sustainable business practices, according to a study from the United Nations Global Compact, an initiative encouraging businesses to adopt more sustainable and socially responsible policies.
The study also showed that the overwhelming majority — 93 percent — of nearly 800 CEOs surveyed now believe their companies’ success depends on some form of effective sustainability management. Eighty-one percent of the CEOs say their companies have implemented sustainability strategies, and most agree the worldwide recession is putting an unprecedented emphasis on sustainability for conserving resources and controlling related costs.
Energy-cost reduction — coupled with the uncertainty of the current economy — is now considered a survival measure, the survey showed.
For the second year in a row, EasyStreet joins 100 other sustainability-minded companies who made Oregon Business Magazine’s “Best Green Companies to Work For” list. EasyStreet reserved a table at the June 1 festivities held this year at the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton Hotel in downtown Portland.
The event keynote speaker, Adam Lane, Ecotrust’s CFO and COO, pointed out that this year’s winners don’t just talk about sustainability as it becomes “little black dress of the business marketing world.” These companies not only talk the talk, they also walk the walk. “These organizations are the real deal,” he says.
Click here for a link to an Oregon Business magazine article about the event.
A link to the complete 100 Best Green Companies to Work For list can be found here.
This InfoWorld article says research company Forrester has released a report titled “The Value of a Green IT Maturity Assessment” to guide companies in devising a “sensible green-tech agenda.” They say the challenge is pinpointing what areas in your organization to assess in the first place. It’s not only the data center, but also the desktops and print stations that can greatly contribute to greener IT.
Of course EasyStreet is focusing on creating a greener data center, because that’s where the big efficiencies will come from, but take a look at all of our sustainability approaches and you can see how the little things can add up.
IT professionals are well aware that so-called “simple” solutions usually have their own formidable complexities. Rick Freedman, author of “The IT Consultant,” recently provided a classic example. It seems IT consulting company EDS last year was eager to comply with the Environmental Protection Agency “Energy Star” program for reducing computer energy use, and in the process save $480,000 a year.
“Its plan didn’t involve wholesale replacement of servers or storage devices or virtualizing and consolidating the data center,” Freedman writes. “It also didn’t require the company to pipe chilled water into its facility or install solar panels on the roof. EDS simply used the existing power-management capabilities of its 90,000 desktop PCs to turn off the power when idle.”
But what seemed like a perfect example of “low-hanging fruit” had some serious hitches. Some applications had problems coming back online. Backup operations had to be rescheduled. Entire systems disappeared from consoles and set off alarms. EDS had to put the brakes on the plan and re-implement it as a multi-phase project to eliminate the problems.
“EDS’s experience seeking energy efficiency tells us a couple of things,” Freedman concludes. “First, applying the most basic Green IT tactics, such as turning off the lights, can reap significant green rewards and cost savings. And, second, even the simplest tactics have complications.”
It’s not often being 20th on any list is brag-worthy, but EasyStreet was blown away to be ranked number 20 on Oregon Business magazine’s 2009 list of 100 Best Green Companies to Work for in Oregon. The awards ceremony was held at the Gerding Theatre last night. For the 2009 survey, nearly 30,000 Oregon workers rated satisfaction and importance in five statements related to sustainable practices.
Because the awards are based on employee input, Oregon Business Publisher Andrew Insinga said these awards are all about “what these companies are doing to be green when nobody’s looking.” Even Governor Kulongoski stopped by to offer his congratulations. And we were delightfully serenaded by the Portland Cello Project.
To read more about the Top 100 Green Companies award and see the complete list, click here.
Performance artist Drew Slum delivers his rapid-fire rap-poem, “Ode to the 100 Best,” in which he cleverly incorporates the names of all 100 companies on the list. I hope he publishes it somewhere for everyone to read — it’s amazing! (Thanks to Susan Hayden for the photo!)
