Climate Science & Green Tech

We Need a Green Plan, so why not a Green GRC Plan. See how NetApp did it and consider how you might exercise your own program. What Is Required Reduction In GHG?

Start locally. Publish your own office Green Plan. Consider publishing a family green plan. Here's how we did ours.

The first view is for a program manager. The second view is for legal and research. The third plan is for home office and small business managers. Hope at least one of the three models provides you the support to kick off your journey.

Now visit The Model Green Office Plan.

Did you need a Strategic plan? 

Green GRC
Using NetApp as a Bay Area Green Leader Model, and
EnterpriseGRC Solutions, Sample Green Office Plan

• We Need a Green Plan
• What Is Required Reduction In GHG?

GHG or Green House Gas, has been at the forefront of international concern for two decades.  Initiated in 1990, the Kyoto Protocol is an International Environment Treaty, representing an agreement that industrialized countries reduce their collective emissions of greenhouse gases* by 5.2%. 

The United States, among others, agreed to reach a 6% GHG reduction by 2012.   We had less than a year to comply. http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/kpeng.html

We failed.

• The US Sets Target to Reduce Emissions by 50-52% Below 2005 Levels in 2030
• In advance of the Leaders Summit on Climate, convened by US President Joe Biden from 22-23 April 2021, the US submitted its new nationally determined contribution (NDC). The NDC sets an economy-wide target for the US to reduce its net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 50-52% below 2005 levels in 2030.
• GHG Reduction has a Substantial Footprint
• Green Programs –Reduce GHG
• Does Green Mean Less or More?
• Green has become a marketing term. It is associated with political behaviors and numerous types of products, but
• Green House Gas reductions is a science involving technical and monitored criteria
• To be Clear, we are addressing a company's collective efforts to achieve recognized reductions in their total carbon emissions.
• Also known as reducing our “Carbon Footprint”, lowering GHG occurs as a result of many “green” behaviors, but the actual setting a public Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Goal (within the US) is achieved through registration with the Environment Protection Agency, a.k.a. the EPA.

So, Does Green Mean Less or More?

• Green is Less and More- Carbon Offsets Trade
• Businesses must Manufacture and Consume resources
• Efforts to reduce carbon emissions need to align with business mission and strategy
• A Green Plan must result in a recognized reduction from a GHG baseline.
• A Green Plan must first, be a business plan.
• Green may involve more consumption, more construction, more audits, higher material cost and less profit. One would call that, a bad green plan.
• Today’s Carbon Offsets Trade allows purchasing credits to lower an entity’s carbon footprint score. Some challenge the ethics of this approach, and certainly, the practice will experience its share of fraud and abuse.
• The goal of a green economy is to produce more with less environmental impact and to achieve a sustainable balance in our consumption of fossil fuels.
• Carbon Offset Factoids from Clean Air-Cool Planet
• Carbon offsets fund projects that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The projects such as reforestation, increasing the energy efficiency of building or transportation, reducing water waste and materials re-use. When corporations can’t or don’t choose to reduce carbon emissions through actions in their own business, Carbon offsets pay to reduce the global GHG.
• Currently, offsets are voluntary. People and businesses buy them to reduce build up their green image. One reason to rely more heavily on carbon offset projects is that logistically, it is easier to make changes in an area that does not already have a developed infrastructure. http://www.cleanair-coolplanet.org/ConsumersGuidetoCarbonOffsets.pdf

Enterprise Operations and Green

• The greatest contributors to GHG come from manufacturing and technology, so clearly the low hanging fruit in reducing corporate emissions will target technology and enterprise operations
• This hour will put emphasis on technology, with a reminder that a program for GHG reduction is driven by collective consideration for Wind, Water, Solar, Fuel Cells, Efficiency, Pollution Controls, Waste Reduction, and Organics, as would apply to enabling a thriving business.
• GREEN without profit is a bad plan
• Therefore, a GREEN Plan is MORE.
• Green Impact Throughout ICT and IT Service Management

IT solutions aim towards improving the efficient use of computing resources while enabling business services.  Green IT simply adds a dimension that reduces the environmental impact of these same solutions while addressing the Triple Bottom Line.

• Today We Have a Triple Bottom Line
• Executive Governance Steering must address a triple bottom line where success is defined in economic, environmental, and social terms.
• Both consumers and the development of these resources support a healthy economy.
• Sustainable business models ensure that production and consumption of services balance measures to support that natural resources continue to exist. Business Accounting & Finance are able to account for the impact these products and services have on related social, economic, and environmental outcomes. Recognized offsets are applied and audited.
• Use Case: NetApp Leads Achievements in IT Products & Service

Using NetApp’s model Customer Case Study Consider the Metrics that drive business

• Reduced offline backup time by 95%
• Reduced database restore time by 98%
• Cut provisioning time by 90%
• Increased storage capacity by 800%
• Increased e-mail recovery time by more than (etc.)

These figures can be factored against SEC-reported operational costs, budgets, and defined outcomes.  These efficiencies, when measured in the right context, are GREEN.

• In comparison, the following claim received a great deal of media attention.
• “Dell says it’s implementing a new computer packaging plan that will result in estimated savings of more than $8 million and the elimination of approximately 20 million pounds of packaging material over the next four years.”
• With due respect to the value of this effort, 8 million is not set against a business context and companies find cheaper ways to package and ship every day. Are 20 million pounds of packaging really worth mentioning? Is the larger story that they were wasting 20 million pounds because shipping was inefficient?
• EPA packaging guidelines are not new.
• Packaging Waste: Whose Responsibility is it Anyway?
• Sponsored by U. S. EPA, Region 2 and
• The Cornell Waste Management Institute
• on behalf of the NYC Department of Sanitation
• November 6, 1998

NetApp's $1.4 million, HP's 1 Billion, Dell's 8 Million

• Reporting That We Stopped Wasting Money Is Not The End Game – It’s just getting A lot of Press. NetApp is Achieving Concrete, Measurable Green Objectives NetApp's $1.4 million rebate — the largest of its kind awarded so far by PG&E — for construction of its new data center and its certification as a green business mark the latest recognition for the 16-year-old firm and its eco-friendly efforts.
• PG&E tendered the $1,427,477 rebate under its incentive program for energy-efficient building design and construction that's aimed at commercial, industrial, high-tech, and agricultural customers. NetApp received the rebate for building its new engineering data center, which also will help the company knockdown energy costs by almost $1.2 million a year and slash its carbon dioxide emissions …
• In addition, NetApp was recognized by the regional Green Business Program, a partnership among local governments, business, and environmental and waste management agencies that honors and promotes entities exceeding environmental regulations. NetApp was certified a green business by the Santa Clara County branch of the program, which also acknowledged the firm for its achievements in waste management. Source URL:

http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/12/09/netapps-green-drive

Power Costs - It’s Not Just The Data Center

• U.S. Department of Energy reports commercial electricity costs increased 24% since 2000 and this trend will continue.
• Data center power utilization doubled since 2000 (according to a 2007 report released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) and accounts for 1.5% of all U.S. electricity consumption.
• The EPA projected data center power consumption doubling by 2011 resulting in $7.4 billion annual national electric costs for servers and data centers.
• Hey, It’s 2022 – So “Are We There Yet?”
• Smart 2020: Enabling The Low Carbon Economy In The Information Age

Smart 2020: Enabling the low carbon economy in the information age: US Addendum, Published November 18, 2008

• U.S. carbon emissions today total 6 billion tons, will reach 6.4 billion tons by 2020. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) called for greenhouse gas emissions reduction of 60-80% below 2000 levels by 2050 to avoid significant environmental damage. 
• The information and communications technology (ICT) industry can enable a large portion of that reduction. Altogether, ICT enabled solutions could cut annual CO2 emissions in the U.S. by 13–22 percent from business-as-usual projections for 2020. This translates to gross energy and fuel savings of $140-240 billion dollars.
• This report focuses on four areas: A smart electrical grid, more efficient road transportation, smart buildings and travel substitution, such as virtual meetings. It also offers the federal government suggestions for utilizing the full potential of ICT to battle climate change, such as monetizing carbon and encouraging the widespread adoption of broadband.
• Domains of Excellence in Data Center Management are Established in Most Major High-Tech Organizations
• THE NETAPP COMMITMENT
• Runaway power consumption in the data center is an issue that storage vendors simply must address. At
• NetApp, we take this responsibility seriously and we will continue to devote our resources and talents to the development of data management and storage technologies that will help you overcome the challenges that power consumption realities pose to your success.
• In our ongoing efforts to simplify data management, we will continue to reduce infrastructure complexity and cost and provide you the flexibility you need to stay competitive and meet your business challenges.
• By focusing on data management and storage efficiency, not only can your organization realize substantial cost savings, you can do so while contributing to the health of our planet.
• Customer Data Centers Will Do More with Less
• Moving Beyond Power, Cooling & Space

NetApp will likely continue to push for metrics through standards development organizations such as SNIA, OASIS, and ANSI that evolve common green criteria for their specific appliances.

Earning a recognized rating that marks NetApp's FAS Array as both EPA qualified AND better product than EMC, HP, IBM, Hitachi, or Dell is the obvious path ahead.

“Making Green IT a Reality; Customer Perspectives on the Impact of Storage Vendor Decisions on Power, Cooling, & Space in Enterprise Data Centers”,  December 2007 by Oliver Wyman, demonstrated that NetApp moves its customers and its operations in a constructive and green direction. 

Innovation, Compliance, and Convergence Aside, The Best Product at the Lowest Price Wins. Green Product Offsets drive down TCO

• Compliance with Laws & Regulations

New Laws Bring…

• New Guidance and Standards
• New Incentives and Markets
• New Risks
• New Opportunities
• New Law Breakers
• Green Is No Longer Optional Spending – It's Within Primary Spending

This package is the first crucial step in a concerted effort to create and save 3 to 4 million jobs, jumpstart our economy, and begin the process of transforming it for the 21st century with $275 billion in economic recovery tax cuts and $550 billion in thoughtful and carefully targeted priority investments with unprecedented accountability measures built-in.

• The package contains targeted efforts in:
• Clean, Efficient, American Energy
• Transforming our Economy with Science and Technology
• Modernizing Roads, Bridges, Transit and Waterways
• Education for the 21st Century
• Tax Cuts to Make Work Pay and Create Jobs
• Lowering Healthcare Costs
• Helping Workers Hurt by the Economy
• Saving Public Sector Jobs and Protect Vital Services

Existing Laws - Environmental Protection

• Atomic Energy Act (AEA) AEA in U.S.C.
• Clean Air Act (CAA) CAA in U.S.C.
• Clean Water Act (CWA)(original title: Federal Water Pollution Control Amendments of 1972)
• Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA, or Superfund)
• Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA)
• Endangered Species Act (ESA)
• Energy Policy Act Energy Policy Act
• Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA)
• Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)
• Federal Water Pollution Control Amendments
• Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act (MPRSA, also known as the Ocean Dumping Act)
• EPA's Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act Home Page
• National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
• National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act (NTTAA)
• Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA)
• Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA)
• Ocean Dumping Act
• See Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act
• Oil Pollution Act (OPA)
• Pollution Prevention Act (PPA)
• Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
• Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)
• Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act
• Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA)
• Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)

United States Law Requirements at EPA
Enforcement and Compliance Targets

• Transparency to Stakeholders
• Federal Spending toward Economic Stabilization trends heavily to issues affecting our environment, especially inefficient distribution of energy-efficient enabling technologies.
• Oversight Hearing: Understanding the Changing Climate System and the Role of Climate Research | House Committee on Appropriations
• Clean, Efficient, American Energy: To put people back to work today and reduce our dependence on foreign oil tomorrow, we will strengthen efforts directed at doubling renewable energy production and renovate public buildings to make them more energy-efficient.
• $32 billion to transform the nation’s energy transmission, distribution, and production systems by allowing for a smarter and better grid and focusing investment in renewable technology.
• $16 billion to repair public housing and make key energy efficiency retrofits.
• $6 billion to weatherize modest-income homes.
• Transform our Economy with Science and Technology: We need to put scientists to work looking for the next great discovery, creating jobs in cutting-edge technologies, and making smart investments that will help businesses in every community succeed in a global economy. For every dollar invested in broadband, the economy sees a ten-fold return on that investment.
• $10 billion for science facilities, research, and instrumentation.
• $6 billion to expand broadband internet access so businesses in rural and other underserved areas can link up to the global economy.
• Market awareness of reduction in Green House Gas emissions has dramatically increased. The capacity to measure, monitor, set business-appropriate goals, and then meet them, is now critical to enterprise steering.
• Money Allocated for Green Spending
• World Resource Institute, “Switching to Green”, published October 2006, provides simple guidelines for the accounting and process in buying Green Power.
• Public and Private company accounting will be scrutinized for the use of Federal funds and the achievement of Renewable Energy Credits (REC’s).
• High Tech Needs to Follow the Climate Leaders Goal-Setting Process

Climate Leaders provides direct technical assistance to companies in completing a GHG inventory based on standardized accounting practices1 and an Inventory Management Plan2 to ensure credibility and consistency in emissions data, both of which are essential to tracking progress towards meeting a GHG reduction goal. Climate Leaders has also developed a goal-setting review process based on a performance benchmark methodology to ensure that all goals announced under the program are indicative of corporate leadership on climate change, as well as to provide credible third-party feedback to companies prior to their public announcement of a GHG reduction goal.

Performance Benchmark Data Sources

• To develop a baseline estimate, EPA sought publicly available, data-driven, company-relevant projections of future use of fuels and electricity, normalized to a measure of output or business scale. EPA found that, outside of electric utilities, for which a separate model, the Integrated Planning Model, is required and available, there are three different data sources, which have some overlap, and which jointly provide the best available basis for such projections:

1. 1) The Energy Information Administration (EIA)'s Industrial Demand Module (IDM) for projections for a set of 15 energy intensive industries;
2. 2) The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) historical and projected input/output tables for the U.S. economy divided into 200 sectors; and
3. 3) The EIA's projections for energy intensity of commercial buildings.

Phase 1—Identify Your Needs

• Approach the problem as a Governance Risk and Compliance Issue.
• Goals and Risks should be determined by Steering Committee.
• Bring a clearly defined business objective to the Board.
• Seek Industry Appropriate Guidance
• World Resource Institute (WRI) 2006 SWITCHING TO GREEN, A Renewable Energy Guide for Office and Retail Companies
• Clean Energy Strategies for Local Governments Green Power Procurement
• Identify Your Industry's Market Measures
• Influence Intelligent Measures in your Sector
• Build Green Into Existing Enterprise Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC) Programs
• Earn Recognition by Setting a Public Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Goal

EPA Climate Leaders

Corporate-wide (including at least all U.S. operations)

• Based on the most recent base year data
• Achieved over 5 to 10 years
• Expressed as an absolute GHG reduction or as a decrease in GHG intensity
• Aggressive compared to the projected GHG performance for the Partner's sector
• Quantify Risk Appetite And Risk History
• Remember GRC Reduces Cost through Convergence

INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO/IEC 38500 ISO - Performance of the organization

Proper Corporate Governance of IT assists directors to ensure that IT use contributes positively to the performance of the organization, through:

• Appropriate Implementation And Operation of IT Assets
• Clarity of Responsibility And Accountability For Both The Use And Provision of IT In Achieving The Goals of The Organization
• Business Continuity And Sustainability
• Alignment of IT With Business Needs
• Efficient Allocation of Resources
• Innovation In Services, Markets, And Business
• Good Practice In Relationships With Stakeholders
• Reduction In The Costs For An Organization
• Actual Realization of The Approved Benefits From Each IT Investment

INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO/IEC 38500

• Invoke and Involve LEED Certification
• LEED® is a third-party certification program and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings.
• LEED® promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health:
• sustainable site development,
• water savings,
• energy efficiency,
• materials selection and
• indoor environmental quality.
• Federal Funding for Green Construction is at an all-time high.
• The Army Did - Army Strategy for the Environment (ASE):
• Sustain the Mission, Secure the Future
• Army vision for a sustainable Army—coordinated across all Army functional areas—
• Foster an ethic within the Army that takes us beyond environmental compliance to sustainability.
• Strengthen Army operational capability by reducing our environmental footprint through more sustainable practices.
• Meet current and future training, testing, and other mission requirements by sustaining land, air, and water resources.

Minimize impacts and total ownership costs of Army systems, materiel, facilities, and operations by integrating the principles and practices of sustainability.

Glossary

• activity data: a quantitative measure of activity that results in a GHG emission or removal (NOTE Examples of GHG activity data include the amount of energy, fuels or electricity consumed, material produced, service provided, or area of land affected).
• assertion: your declaration of your organization’s GHG inventory.
• base year (baseline year): the historical period specified for the purpose of comparing GHG emissions or removals or other GHG-related information over time.
• carbon dioxide equivalent or CO2e: a unit of measurement that allows all GHGs to be reported in one unit for consistency. CO2e is calculated using the mass of a given GHG multiplied by its global warming potential (GWP). Also the reason why GHG inventories are also called carbon footprints.
• carbon footprint: the total GHG emissions and reductions for an organization over a specific time period (see greenhouse gas inventory).
• carbon performance report: a stand-alone document intended to communicate an organization's or project's GHG-related information (see greenhouse gas report).
• Data Center Efficiency (DCE)
• direct emission: a physical entity or process owned and/or controlled by the organization that is a source of GHG.
• emission or removal factor: a factor relating activity data to GHG emissions or removals (NOTE A greenhouse gas emission or removal factor could include an oxidation component).
• emission: the total mass of a GHG released to the atmosphere for a given period of time.
• energy indirect emission: electricity, heat or steam consumed by your organization, but not generated by your organization.
• facility: a single installation, set of installations or production processes (stationary or mobile), which can be defined within a single geographical boundary, organizational unit or production process.
• global warming potential (GWP): a calculation of how much a given mass of a specific GHG contributes to climate change.
• greenhouse gas (GHG): a gas in the atmosphere (natural or manmade) that absorbs and emits radiation to contribute to climate change (global warming), including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydro fluorocarbons (HFCs), per fluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6).
• information system: policies, processes and procedures to establish, manage and maintain GHG information.
• inventory: the total GHG emissions and reductions for an organization over a specific time period (see carbon footprint).
• Glossary
• Level of assurance: the degree of assurance required in a verification statement of carbon performance.
• materiality: the concept that individual or an aggregate of errors, omissions, and misrepresentations could affect the accuracy or validity of the carbon performance report.
• monitoring: continuous or periodic assessment of GHG emissions and removals or other GHG-related data
• organization: referring to any company, corporation, firm, enterprise, authority or institution, or part or combination thereof, whether incorporated or not, public or private, that has its own functions and administration.
• Other indirect emissions: GHG emission, other than energy indirect GHG emissions, which is a consequence of an organization's activities, but arises from greenhouse gas sources that are owned or controlled by other organizations.
• Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE)
• removal: the total mass of a GHG removed from the atmosphere over a specified period.
• report: a stand-alone document intended to communicate an organization's or project's GHG-related information (see carbon performance report).
• reservoir a physical entity that is able to capture and store greenhouse gas.
• sink: a physical entity or process that removes greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.
• source: a physical entity or process that emits greenhouse gas to the atmosphere.
• tonne or metric ton (symbol t), sometimes referred to as a metric tonne, is a measurement of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms
• verification criteria: a policy, procedure or requirement used as a reference against which evidence is compared.
• verification statement: a formal written declaration that provides assurance on the statements in the carbon performance report.
• verification: a systematic, independent, objective and documented process for the evaluation of a carbon performance report.
• verifier: a competent and independent person, or persons, with responsibility for performing and reporting on the verification process

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design

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7 World Trade Center, considered New York City's first "green" office tower by gaining gold status in the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED program.[1]

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), provides a suite of standards for environmentally sustainable construction. Since its inception in 1998, LEED has grown to encompass  than 14,000 projects in 50 US States and 30 countries covering 1.062 billion square feet (99 km²) of development area. The hallmark of LEED is that it is an open and transparent process where the technical criteria proposed by the LEED committees are publicly reviewed for approval by the  than 10,000 membership organizations that currently constitute the USGBC.

Individuals recognized for their knowledge of the LEED rating system are permitted to use the LEED Accredited Professional (AP) acronym after their name, indicating they have passed the accreditation exam given by the Green Building Certification Institute (a 3rd party organization that handles accreditation for the USGBC).

Thanks, Center for Resource Solutions

The Center for Resource Solutions (CRS) is a national nonprofit with global impact. CRS brings forth expert responses to climate change issues with the speed and effectiveness necessary to provide real-time solutions. Its leadership through collaboration and environmental innovation builds policies and consumer-protection mechanisms in renewable energy, greenhouse gas reductions, and energy efficiency that foster healthy and sustained growth in national and international markets. For information about its programs, visit www.resource-solutions.org and www.green-e.org.

Thanks, USA.Gov and EPA.Gov

• http://www.epa.gov/ttn/chief/conference/ei16/session13/wintergreen_pres.pdf

The Business Guide To The Low Carbon Economy http://www.greenbiz.com/resources/resource/the-business-guide-low-carbon-economy-california

http://www.bizjournals.com/industries/industries/green/general

• Sources
• Is Green IT a real ITSM issue? By John Windebank, Principal Solution Architect, Global Data Centre Efficiency Practice, Sun Microsystems Inc. 2008
• Green-e Energy National Standard for Renewable Electricity Products in all regions of the United States. 4/3/2008
• California’s “Renewables Portfolio Standard Eligibility Guidebook, August 2004. This guidebook can be downloaded at: http://www.energy.ca.gov/portfolio/documents/guidebooks/2004-08-20_500-04-002F1.PDF
• World Resources Institute and World Business Council for Sustainable Development, The Greenhouse Gas Protocol: The GHG Protocol for Project Accounting (November 2005), available at: http://www.ghgprotocol.org
• Murray, B.C., B.L. Sohngen, and M.T. Ross. 2007. “Economic Consequences of Consideration of Permanence, Leakage, and Additionality for Soil Carbon Sequestration Projects.” Climatic Change 80:127-143 available at: 

Green Office Plan

• Model for Green Office Plan
• Our Green Office Plan - Recycling
• Recycling is managed by the local community. Our commitment is to dispose of paper, cans, plastics and materials as outlined by the requirements of our local recycling service provider.
• Electronic Equipment: We us local collection programs to donate or recycle end of life electronic equipment. We will avoid putting electronics into landfills by first, attempting to donate working equipment to charitable programs, and second by bringing equipment to a suitable electronic waste management facility.
• Purchasing: Preference is given to recycled products such as paper, packaging, furniture, notebooks, greeting cards, folders and envelopes.
• Shopping sacks: We will purchase and use shopping bags rather than consuming and throwing out plastic and paper. When we use paper for shopping, we will further use that bag as a packaging material in our paper recycling program
• Cut Back on the Use of Paper Products 
• Paper: products need to be treated as sustainable natural energy-compliant used at a responsible rate. Paper isn’t bad, but wasting resources is. For example, we use and retain paper documents based on the need to have a legal copy. 
• Printing and Data: We avoid duplicating or printing the information that is easily accessed through backups or online. If we can use digital records, paper copies may not be necessary.  If we can use data storage, we will not duplicate file shares on external drives and multiple server locations.
• Two Sides: We use the white side of the paper for notes or other “draft” printing.
• Advertisements and Junk: Junk Mail is as bad in digital form as a paper form. We should avoid creating it, receiving it, storing it or failing to recycle it.
  Paper Towels: Paper towels are efficient and reduce the spread of bacteria, but cloth rags are also effective for cleaning. When cleaning, use judgment.
• Marketing Matters: Double-sided printing saves paper and is equally professional as one. Printing devices and ink will be selected from energy-compliant products. We will use up our collateral before we print more.  We will not leave piles of marketing materials to be thrown out after trade shows and meetings.

Save Power

• Electricity: We will avoid misuse of electronics, computers, clocks, and appliances. We will unplug any appliance that is not in use. We will purchase energy-efficient devices.
• Lights:  We use natural sunlight for most of our offices, reducing the need for overhead lights during day hours. Our windows are treated to reduce the harmful effect of UV light and to reduce summer cooling requirements. We only use energy-efficient light bulbs.
• Alternative Power:  We seek and use alternative power. When our office gets chilly, we get up and move, put on a sweater, maintain the winter thermostat at or below 70 degrees. During peak summer days, we will pull the blinds to reduce heat from the sun and maintain the cooling at or above 78 degrees.
• Outside Lights:  We use solar lanterns on our walkway, and where possible, we support the use of motion sensors and funding to replace highway lights with energy-efficient bulbs.

Green Green Grass of Home

• Landscaping: We will reduce the need for nitrates and phosphates. We select indigenous vegetation that offers shade and color and don’t require fertilizers that expose our office and families to unnecessary health problems.
• We compost and we will insist that our landscaper’s compost to ensure our grounds have healthy soil.
• Maintain Healthy Soil: Composted ground soil retains moisture and needs less water, which will support our pledge to reduce water waste. We will lower our water bill. We choose landscaping that retains and leverages “greywater” as opposed to consuming from our primary drinking reservoir.
• Where possible, we will use manual vs. electric tools, such as reel mowers and hedge clippers. This extra effort will give us a healthy workout and avoid the gas pollutants of a large power mower.
•  
• Pollutants and Second Hand Supplies

Pollutants

• We are careful in the management of pollutants such as oil.
• We prefer use of nonchemical solutions, such as a hat instead of sun screen, or spay bottles before aerosol.
• We use natural products for cleaning, above all respecting moderation in the use of soaps, solvents, pesticides and polishes.

Secondhand Supplies

• Leftover Supplies. When we complete projects we will gather and donate left over paint and supplies to a person or charity that needs it
• We will communicate to our community about items we wish to pass on, dropping items to locations that can manage their distribution.
• Bottles & Transportation 
• Bottled Water:  Filtered tap water in the refrigerator is as safe or safer than bottled water and tastes just as good or better. Glasses in a dishwasher consume less energy than the creation and disposal of plastic. We will avoid plastic trash by reasonably managing our use of plastic water containers. We supply our office with water filtration, glasses, and a dishwasher. 
• Walking: We walk or ride a bicycle before we drive, promoting health and reducing gasoline and emissions. When we drive, we carpool from a common location.  Whenever possible, we walk and talk, using outdoor light open-air to promote communication and health.
• Efficient Cars: We care for our vehicles to keep tire pressure and engine functions optimal.
• Public Transportation: We use public transportation when it is available.
• Alternative Fuel: We promote purchasing hybrid and fuel-efficient cars. We select hybrid cars when leasing or renting for business.
• Virtual Travel: We provide teleconference options and remote working capabilities.
• Thank You for your time and consideration.

About Robin Basham, M.Ed., M.IT, CISSP, CISA, ITSM, CGEIT, CRISC, Archer Certified Consultant

Managing Partner, EnterpriseGRC Solutions, Inc.

Enterprise Governance Risk & Compliance; Leading Green IT

Robin Basham is recognized across several major industries as an ICT Enterprise and GRC expert.  With experience in Data Center Design and Implementation, Enterprise Solutions from data-driven workflow systems to infrastructure and compliance, Ms. Basham is positioned to assist EnterpriseGRC Solutions clients in Green Tech initiatives, aligning with every aspect of the Business Enterprise.

Regulatory and International Standards Expert, Operations Officer, Master Educator

<No longer true-this group disbanded> Robin is was on the board of ACGTA, focusing on Environmental Sustainability and Energy Technology Governance and assurance.

Steering Committees - ISACA, OASIS, OMG, CSA Degrees include two bachelors from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, a master’s from Lesley College in Cambridge, and after 13 years working in Information Technology, a second master's in enterprise technology from American InterContinental University.

Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.