Why Green?

Friday Jun 13, 2008

You might wonder why my blog has the "green" theme. Global warming and climate change is something that my 10 and 11 year old kids are already thinking about. They ask me what we can do to help the Earth, and are very focused on recycling. They like watching the consumption meter on my Prius to see when we're using gas (and how much) vs. electricity. They ask lots of questions and come up with many creative solutions - some involving very large fans to blow away all the pollution, setting up camp on Mars, and planting lots of trees to breathe greenhouse gases and produce more oxygen.

Sun is also very conscious about environmental issues (which makes me very happy). Here are some of the ways Sun is working to be eco responsible:

Greening our business.

Sun is committed to reducing its carbon footprint. We've committed to a 20 percent reduction of our U.S. greenhouse gas emissions over 2002 levels by 2012 as part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Climate Leaders program.

Greening our datacenter.

By using best practices in datacenter design and hardware consolidation, Sun was able to cut our utility bill by over 60% and earn over $1M in rebates.

Alternative energy strategy.

Sun is investigating the use of solar arrays for our Broomfield, Colorado and Menlo Park, California campuses.

Recycling.

Sun has a variety of paper, cardboard, foam, furniture, equipment, battery and other recycling programs to keep useful materials out of landfills and to help conserve natural resources. We even have compostable cups, straws, and cutlery made from corn in our cafeteria.

Sun Open Work.

Sun Open Work creates a mobile, globally distributed workforce which delivers real benefits to Sun and employees, including reduced energy costs, real estate savings, decreased commutes, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and schedule flexibility.

Our Products.

Sun leads the industry in offering a portfolio of eco responsible products that deliver high-performance, sustainable computing solutions. Our goal is to design all of our products with energy efficiency and eco responsibility in mind, while continuing to deliver the industry-leading performance customers have come to expect from Sun.

Product Returns.

We are fully committed to maintaining our current goal that less than 5 percent of products involved in Sun's Global Product Returns Program enter into the waste stream at end of life. As a result, Sun has implemented a global product returns program that recycles, reclaims, and reuses components or entire systems. Used computer equipment is collected and sent to a third-party asset recovery vendor that recovers useful parts. These parts are then returned to Sun for remanufacture and reuse. Components and assemblies that have no commercial value as functioning systems or components are broken down for the recovery and recycling of metals and plastics.

You can read more about Sun's commitment to Eco Responsibility here and our efforts to be a responsible corporate citizen here.