Pushing environmental credentials

Corporate social responsibility is driving many organisations to undertake detailed appraisals of their environmental performance, and construction businesses and IT vendors are no different.

For example, UK-based contractor Carillion started producing environmental reports back in the late 1990s and is today ranked as one of Britain's Best Green Companies, as recognised by the Sunday Times. Strangely, it isn't a member of the UK Green Building Council, but one company that is, Aedas Architects, recently sent us a copy of its Green Book, a practice publication summarising its sustainability policy and strategy. It is an inspiring publication that has prompted all sorts of ideas about what we ought to be doing next within BIW (see previous post).

Another organisation that is setting an example to us is IT vendor Autodesk, which has just launched its first Sustainability Report. This outlines the company's four areas of focus:

1. Conduct Our Business Responsibly
2. Optimize the Environmental Impact of Our Operations
3. Make Our Products the Best Available for Doing Sustainable Design
4. Amplify Our Impact by Partnering with Leading Innovators

The report also has lots of information about how different parts of Autodesk are mitigating its environmental impact. For example, in 2007 just one of its US data centres used about 13 percent of Autodesk's total electricity consumption in the US, presenting "a compelling opportunity to save money, conserve energy and reduce associated GHG emissions". A server virtualisation project saved about $1 million in equipment and energy costs. The company is also undertaking projects to reduce the impacts of its employees business travel and commuting, and is seeking to quantify and reduce impacts associated with its products (software packaging, distribution, documentation, etc).