Environmental Sustainability in Microsoft UK
Here in Microsoft UK our Environmental Management team have been spending the past year getting a handle on our environmental footprint and putting in place a program to reduce our environmental impact. Here are some of the achievements so far …………with more to come as we tackle energy consumption and travel more aggressively in the coming year.
· Carbon Footprint Calculation: Microsoft UK Ltd commissioned the Carbon Trust to do a full audit to calculate its carbon footprint. As a result plans are now in place to address the largest areas of contribution to our carbon emissions which are business travel, energy consumption, and commuting. Globally our footprint stands at 938,000 metric tonnes of CO2 in 2007. We have set a global carbon reduction goal of 30% based on this per unit of revenue by 2012.
· Utilising technology to avoid travel: Microsoft actively encourages the usage of Microsoft Live Meetings internally and with customers. A pilot programme was introduced in 2009 to reduce the total number of meetings which staff either travel to themselves, or ask external parties to travel to Thames Valley Park, using our Unified Communications and Live Meetings technology is now in place. The plan is to expand this scheme and mandate a higher usage of Live Meetings throughout the business.
· We have now eradicated the supply of bottled water at Microsoft’s UK Reading, Chertsey and London offices. This initiative will save 2 million litres of water, 39 barrels of oil and 610,000kgs of greenhouse gases. We will be introducing zip taps and personalised water bottles for all staff which provides filtered water instead.
· New Microsoft buildings consume greater than 20 % less energy than existing traditional buildings. For example, From energy use and heating and lighting through to the plan of the workspace itself, Building 5 at Thames Valley Park has been designed and built to be as sustainable as possible and to support collaboration and mobility. It is intended to be the model for all new Microsoft buildings in the UK.
· Proximity printing - In early 2009 Microsoft UK introduced proximity printing at offices in Cardinal Place, London and TVP Reading. A recent survey showed that up to 12% of all pages sent to printers were not retrieved, wasting 474,000 sheets of paper or the equivalent of 63 trees per year. The introduction of this process means that staff will need to swipe their smartcard in order to retrieve a printing job and save all that paper.
<<See also Green Printing post>>
· Green energy. Microsoft UK leads the world as the first subsidiary to use 100% green energy for its offices in Reading, Chertsey and Edinburgh, which is purchased from hydroelectric sources.
· Meeting respected environmental standards: In 2008 Microsoft began the process of implementing the ISO 14001 as its Environmental Management System. The roll out of the first phase is due to be completed in the first half of 2009 and we are hoping to achieve accreditation for our Facilities in the third quarter of the year.
· Incentivising environmental commuting choices: Providing a £1,200 reduction in lease rental over the term for company cars with CO2 less than 125 g/km. All cars available on the company car pool are restricted to 220 g/km or below as well as using fuel data to identify opportunities for more fuel efficient driving. In March 2009 we held an EcoDriving workshops at TVP to help staff understand how to drive their cars in a more sustainable way
· Partnership with Equipment Refurbishers: With the Microsoft Authorised Reseller and Digital Pipeline programmes, the life of older retired computers is extended through low-cost licenses for Microsoft software, so that computers destined for the landfill can continue to be used. In the UK, by partnering with RDC, Microsoft is helping extend the life of over 4 million PCs in this way.
See also worldwide site…http://www.microsoft.com/environment/commitment_policies/policies_principles.aspx
