Environmental Strategy
Symantec is committed to minimizing its environmental footprint by conserving the natural resources on which we all depend. We consider compliance with all applicable environmental laws and regulations to be the baseline for our performance, and we continually look for innovative ways to decrease our energy, water, and materials use. Symantec’s environmental strategy features four key components:
- Green IT (including the Green Data Center): Symantec has established practices to minimize energy use and optimize performance in our clients’ and our own data centers and beyond. Our solutions facilitate server virtualization and storage consolidation, among others, to help reduce hardware and energy needs.
- Resource conservation: Symantec aims to conserve energy and materials and minimize waste at each of our locations.
- Responsible software packaging: We integrate the concept of reduce/reuse/recycle into packaging design and manufacture, and deliver the majority of our software products electronically in order to conserve materials and energy.
- Transportation: Symantec works to reduce employee commuting and business travel to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.
As we work on current and roll out new environmental initiatives, we are also focusing on engaging employees to let them know how they can contribute to our success. In early 2008 we launched the “It’s the right thing to do” awareness campaign, featuring a quarterly newsletter emailed to all employees. Symantec has also established an intranet site titled “Green is the color of confidence” to provide employees with resources and information about how Symantec is putting its corporate environmental commitment into practice.
Listen to a podcast on Symantec’s environmental initiatives, featuring Cecily Joseph, Symantec’s Director of Corporate Responsibility.
Listen to a podcast on practices and policies IT organizations are adopting in order to operate in a more environmentally responsible manner, featuring Vice President of Global Solutions at Symantec, Jose Iglesias.
Green IT and the Green Data Center
“Green IT” is a broad term that defines efforts to embed environmentally beneficial functionality such as energy and e-waste reduction into computer hardware, software, facilities, and planning. Green IT enables companies to be more efficient in their use of energy, materials, and personnel to run their computer systems, thus saving money while contributing to a cleaner and healthier environment.
Green IT encompasses the concept of a “Green Data Center”. Data centers form the critical hub of modern-day computing. These large facilities, housing hundreds or thousands of servers that store critical information, require significant amounts of energy to power equipment and maintain strict temperature, security, and backup controls. A Green Data Center utilizes less energy, produces fewer emissions, and reduces the amount of toxic or hazardous chemicals in use.
Symantec has developed practices and software tools that apply techniques such as clustering (consolidating machines to use the smallest number possible), storage tiering (only using high-energy, high-performance equipment when necessary), and data deduplication (eliminating saved versions of the same data) to reduce overall data storage needs. By consolidating and even closing data centers, companies, including Symantec, can conserve energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and save money on IT and real estate expenditures:
- In October 2007 we closed a co-located data center in the U.K. and eliminated 10 servers without needing to re-deploy to another data center.
- In August 2007 we closed our second-largest data center, located in Sunnyvale, California, reducing that data center’s device count from 1,635 to 352 devices.
- Two hundred devices were re-deployed to the primary U.S. data center in Arizona; 152 re-deployed to other data center sites, and 15 storage arrays comprising 141 terabytes of physical storage were decommissioned.
- The closure of the 10,000 square foot facility also involved the permanent retiring of superfluous systems and devices, translating into a remarkable 67 percent reduction in individual device energy consumption and related reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
For a more information about Symantec’s Green Data Center solutions, please visit our Green IT Web site.
Meeting the challenge of climate change
Emissions related to energy use in Symantec’s buildings, facilities, data centers, and research labs constitute the major portion of the company’s greenhouse gas releases. We are looking at new ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions across the company, through implementation of Green IT as well as the deployment of other conservation and efficiency solutions. In FY08, we completed our first global greenhouse gas inventory.
In May 2008, we adopted a goal of to reduce CO2 emissions by 15 percent by the end of FY12, using FY08 as our baseline year. We will measure performance against this goal by CO2 emitted per square foot.
To help limit our environmental impact in and around our global headquarters in California, Symantec joined the Sustainable Silicon Valley's Carbon Dioxide Emissions Reduction Initiative in May 2006. We pledged to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 10 percent at our headquarters facilities by 2010 from a FY07 baseline. We surpassed this goal in mid-FY08, achieving upwards of an 18 percent reduction, by consolidating our Sunnyvale, California data center into our larger data center located in Arizona. While our CO2 emissions in the Silicon Valley have increased somewhat in recent quarters due to merger and acquisition activity and an increase in R&D infrastructure within the region, we continue to exceed our 10 percent goal.
Harnessing energy efficiency
An important component of environmental responsibility is energy conservation. In June 2007 we rolled out a simple tool that will significantly cut our own energy use and our energy expenditures. An internal audit showed that many Symantec computers were left on overnight during the week and through many weekends, using millions of kilowatt-hours unnecessarily and costing thousands of dollars a year. To address this inefficiency, we installed a custom power profile to all workstations around the world. This new system will automatically place computers in standby mode after four hours of inactivity. By taking this step, we expect to save more than 6 million kWh of energy and approximately $800,000 per year.
In addition to the work that has already been done, we are continuously looking at new ways to make our data centers and our research-and-development labs more energy-efficient. We will also reach out to our IT customers to suggest steps they can take to reduce energy use at their facilities.
Adopting sustainable building practices
The bulk of Symantec’s direct environmental impacts come from energy and materials use associated with the company’s buildings and facilities. One way that we are minimizing these impacts is through our corporate policy of applying sustainable building practices to the constructing of new buildings. Where practicable, we are seeking U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for New Construction (NC). Existing owned Symantec buildings have been enrolled in the LEED Existing Buildings (EB) program.
The recent completion of Symantec’s new Culver City campus demonstrates the company’s commitment to green building. The site was built to LEED NC Gold standards and achieved Gold certification in 2008. The site also received an International Interior Design Association award for environment excellence in construction; in addition to its state-of-the-art materials and systems, the site’s open plan layout is designed to minimize future construction remodels to reduce cost and construction waste.
Manufacturing with the environment in mind
Symantec’s only owned manufacturing facility is located in Dublin, Ireland. The facility produces 34 percent of Symantec’s software CDs and packaging, with additional production coming from fulfillment partners: DCL in the United States (51 percent) and Teckwah in Singapore and China (15 percent.) The Symantec Dublin environmental management system (EMS) has been certified to the ISO 14001 standard since 1994, and environmental processes are audited internally. Any environmental incidents or complaints are managed through the Global Controlled Actions System, which incorporates full root-cause analysis, corrective, and preventative action processes. There were no environmental incidents, complaints, or violations at the Dublin facility in FY08.
Symantec Dublin sets annual environmental program objectives and targets as part of the facility’s EMS. Seventy-four percent of FY08 objectives were achieved; for example, landfill waste was further reduced by increasing recycling rates, introducing new recycling waste streams, and raising employee awareness around the importance of recycling.
In March 2008 Symantec Dublin significantly reduced air emissions related to electricity use by switching to energy sourced from Airtricity, a renewable electric utility company, to power operations. The purchase of 9.5 million kWh of energy (89 percent of which comes from renewable sources) for the facility’s two buildings will prevent emissions equivalent to taking nearly 2,000 cars off the road for a year (20 million pounds of CO2, 2.3 million pounds of SO2, and 0.7 million pounds of NO2).
Computer Recycling
Symantec donates computers and peripheral equipment to benefit schools near the company’s corporate headquarters in the Bay Area's Silicon Valley. We have given surplus laptops, desktop systems, and associated components to Silicon Valley StRUT (Students Recycling Used Technology), a nonprofit organization that has placed thousands of computers in local elementary, middle, and high schools.
StRUT provides hands-on training to college students in evaluating, repairing, and refurbishing used computers. The refurbished equipment is then given to schools, completing the organization's dual mission of providing technology- and academic-standards-based education for K-16 students while also reducing waste in the environment.
Symantec plans to continue working with StRUT to enhance the quality of education at all levels in our local communities.
At our manufacturing facility in Dublin, Ireland, we are participating in the Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher (MAR) program. Beginning in October 2007, Symantec will install licensed copies of Microsoft operating systems on computers that it refurbishes, thus ensuring legal reuse of recycled computer equipment. The refurbished computers are distributed to local schools and charities, including organizations such as the Irish Wheelchair Society and the Dyslexia Association.
Responsible Software Packaging
Symantec has made great strides in the area of environmentally responsible manufacturing, shrinking the company’s environmental footprint by integrating the concept of “reduce, reuse, recycle” into the software and software packaging manufacturing process. Consumer products are now packaged in smaller boxes that require less material to build, produce, and store. New package designs are already distributed at 70 percent of retail outlets in the Americas and are being introduced in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and the Asia Pacific/Japan (APJ) regions.
To further conserve paper, Symantec is using 100 percent recycled stock for all cards that go into U.S. boxes for 2008 products. For our soon-to-be-shipping Norton 2009 products, we’re printing the quick start card on the back of the manual instead of on a separate card, saving approximately 25 tons of card stock over the coming year.
We have also implemented a program to reuse cardboard packaging, shipping cartons, totes, and other materials. The company has switched to cleaner printing inks and replaced hard plastic CD cases with flexible paper and plastic envelopes.
Electronic product delivery
For more than 10 years, Symantec has offered customers the ability to download software directly, as opposed to purchasing software on CDs. Approximately 70 percent of Symantec’s products are currently delivered electronically, which greatly reduces consumer-generated waste as well as Symantec’s carbon emissions from product transport. As a result, approximately 345 tonnes of packaging material, including cardboard, shrinkwrap, and paper, was saved in 2007 in EMEA.
Transportation
Symantec is cutting down on global travel with video conferencing. In September 2007 we installed HP Halo Collaboration Studios in multiple global locations to facilitate increased levels of face-to-face collaboration without requiring increases in company travel. Halo Studios video conferencing delivers high-definition video images of conference participants and shared laptop images and objects using state-of-the-art video and audio technology. Eight Halo studios are currently in place at locations in Asia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Symantec is helping to ease the commutes of its San Francisco, California Bay Area employees—saving time and money while reducing driving-related environmental impacts. Since the program was instituted in 2006, annual employee auto trips in the Bay Area have decreased by 11 percent and total vehicle miles traveled have decreased by 9 percent. On average, these reductions have resulted in 9 percent decreases in emissions of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, particulate matter, and other air pollutants.