Where does your company get its personality, its values, its integrity? I have found that every organization seems to reflect the personality of a dominant individual in the company. Sometimes it’s the CEO, but often it is a department manager or some other person with a strong presence. Identify that person, and you will understand how to do business with that organization. Or maybe, you will decide not to waste your time and seek a more dependable partner to befriend.
One of the pleasures of doing business in the northwest is the recognition of the importance of reputation and relationships. Throughout my 30+ year business career in Portland, I continued doing business with individuals that I had known during several generations of employment and job titles. There is a lot of talk about companies, but the bottom line is that people do business with people.
In a world where marketing spin attempts to overcome sub-par products and services, it is refreshing to see how some companies take the principled approach and reject the “quick buck.” This morning’s Business Section of the Oregonian featured Rich Bader in an article by Mike Rogoway that recognized EasyStreet as an important business citizen in Portland.
Sustainable businesses are very much like sustainable friendships. They thrive on shared values for the long term.
December 4th, 2007 by Day Tooley
Posted in Sustainability, @ EasyStreet | 1 Comment »
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Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury presented the PGE Gold-Level Clean Wind Partner Certificate to CEO Rich Bader this morning at the EasyStreet data center. The breakfast event was attended by 50 EasyStreet customers.
With 100% renewable power in our offices and 50% wind power in our data center, we are moving to further reduce our carbon footprint.
What goes around, comes around. Bader then recognized Organically Grown Companies as the first of several EasyStreet customers now running their servers with 100% renewable power in our data center.
For the next 60 minutes, a passionate Bill Bradbury delivered his Global Warming Roadshow message.
Based on Al Gore’s training, Bill expanded our understanding from both a world and a northwest perspective. For example, during the past decade Portland has reduced CO2 emissions amid healthy economic growth.
Are sustainable practices good for businesses? The message shared and affirmed today clearly says they are.
Here’s a starting point. Calculate your carbon footprint.
June 5th, 2007 by Day Tooley
Posted in Sustainability, @ EasyStreet | 2 Comments »
This week, EasyStreet began purchasing renewable power for our data center from wind-generated sources under the PGE Clean Wind Program. Quality business data centers like ours require substantial amounts of electrical power (well into the 5-figure range each month).
Also, we now purchase 100% renewable power for the EasyStreet offices (including the computer I am using now - seems to work just the same). The sticker with the above windmill image was put on our entrance door today.
Now our Colocation customers can request our “100% renewable power option” for their servers and promote their sustainable commitment to their customers and community.
You can review our current practices as well as sustainable initiatives we are exploring to further reduce our carbon footprint. Please share your ideas and suggestions to help us and other businesses become more environmentally responsible.
May 11th, 2007 by Day Tooley
Posted in Sustainability, @ EasyStreet, General | Enter a comment »
It’s like the in-laws are coming and suddenly, everywhere we look, there is carbon. Can we get our businesses cleaned up in time? Our carbon footprints are everywhere.
Here’s a surprise. We found a couple of cans of “cleaning duster” from Office Depot in our supply cabinet. Then we discovered this article: Sorry Climate, I Had To Clean My Keyboard. This dinky 10-oz can of cleaner contributes the CO2 equivalent of burning 100 gallons of gasoline.
Not only that, the propellant, HFC-134A, also can result in death when inhaled. Teenagers refer to the practice as “dusting” or “huffing”.
Now what do we do with these 2 cans of “non-ozone depleting” cleaning duster? The can boasts “100% Satisfaction Guaranteed”. Sorry, Office Depot. Business can no longer be satisfied with these damaging products.
One low-tech solution: this nifty little brush that was in my Christmas stocking. Or maybe your handy bicycle pump. Or put your keyboard in the dishwasher (see comments).
May 2nd, 2007 by Day Tooley
Posted in Most Popular, Sustainability, @ EasyStreet | 3 Comments »
Dripping faucets are not only annoying, but they waste a lot of water. 3 faucets dripping 30 drips/minute waste more than 4000 gallons of water in a year.
Your computer workstation is another “dripping faucet” wasting precious power and environmental resources.
Good news! Dripping computers are easy to fix. Simply put your computer in the power-saving hibernate or standby/sleep mode. Here are my power option property settings:
- Turn off monitor after 30 minutes
- Turn off hard disks after 45 minutes
- System standby after 1 hour
Annual savings in power from my workstation alone is $66/year. I can still use remote desktop to telecommute because standby mode wakes upon remote access. Otherwise, I would also set the hibernate option. Here are the numbers:
Computer Power Consumption
- Desktop computer: 43W (standby: 3W)
- 17″ CRT monitor: 75W (standby: 5W)
- 17″ LCD monitor: 22W (standby: 3W)
- Power rate (PGE in Portland, < 5000 KWH/mo): $0.0851/KWH
- Annual power usage/cost w/CRT:
$0.010/hr x 365 day/yr x 24 hr/day = $88/yr
- Annual power usage/cost w/LCD:
$0.0055/hr x 365 day/yr x 24 hr/day = $48/yr
- Using 236 workdays/yr and 9 hrs/workday, office computer on 2124 hr/yr. That is 24.25% of the time.
- Annual savings is 75%.
Annual Savings For Each Computer
- $36 - $66 savings per year in power costs
- 345 - 625 pounds of carbon not added to the atmosphere
- 16 - 29 gallons of gasoline energy equivalent saved
- 50 - 90 FT2 of deforestation prevented
Your company could be saving money and helping the environment at the same time. For example, a 10 workstation small business with a 50:50 split in CRT and LCD monitors would save $500/year in power costs.
The biggest savings come from turning off your computer monitor. Screen savers do not save any power.
If the only power option you set is to turn off your CRT monitor, you still would save $42 annually. As a bonus, that will pay for 15 Grande Lattes at Starbucks (about 2 gallons).
Update: June 15, 2007 - An easy feel-good way to set up your computer to be a more responsible cybercitizen was made available by Snap.com this week (Snap provides the nifty utility that shows a preview of a page link used on this blog). Their easy-to-download-CO2Saver is a tight desktop utility that quickly sets your PC to responsible power mode. It then shows you how many pounds of CO2 you have saved.
I installed it yesterday, and this morning I have saved 0.61 pounds of CO2 so far. The air feels fresher already.
April 23rd, 2007 by Day Tooley
Posted in Sustainability, @ EasyStreet | 1 Comment »
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