Joe Sanguinetti, Senior Director of Shared Technology Services at Avery Dennison gives his take on his IT team's role in enabling sustainability:
Last month, we celebrated our sustainability wins across the company through a campaign called Sustainable September. Our global IT teams contributed to our sustainability efforts in a big way, by building smarter IT systems and capabilities that enable flexibility, collaboration and speed. Sustainability is key to how IT approaches projects - from virtualized data centers, to looking for better ways to recycle hardware waste, to more power-efficient end-user technology, and more.
IT plays a strategic role in enabling Avery Dennison’s vision to reduce its impact on the environment. We work with business partners across the company to enable “greener” technology, and facilitate sustainable products and service innovation.
Here are a few ways technology at Avery Dennison has helped reduce our environmental impact:
- IT has reduced our global enterprise power consumption by virtualizing 80% of our data center and remote site servers. Virtualization replaces multiple dedicated physical servers with a single platform. The ongoing Data Center Refresh initiative for storage also substitutes high-energy spinning hard disks with flash storage, reducing both power and cooling demands by over 50%.
- Newly deployed power-efficient desktops and laptops use 20 to 30 percent less power than the prior generation.
- Moving to shared printers at certain locations decreases the number of printers across the offices, reduces energy use and optimizes space.
Beyond these initiatives, IT is also making its mark with our corporate 2025 sustainability goals focused on our people, that envisions creating a diverse, healthy, and productive workforce. IT enables employee productivity with modern, collaborative tools that make it easy to stay connected anytime and anywhere.
With the use of Google Apps and our work email, calendar and documents now on the cloud, we can efficiently work remotely, or on-the-go from any device. More flexible work options mean that we can find a better work-life balance to maximize productivity and maintain a healthier lifestyle. Each one of us has a role in making sustainable technology choices, both at work and at home. Together, we can continue to transform into a more sustainable workforce and help improve the health of our planet.
To learn more about Avery Dennison's sustainability goals, visit us at averydennison.com/sustainability.
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Sustainable Brands Staff
Published Oct 11, 2016 7pm EDT / 4pm PDT / 12am BST / 1am CEST