Earth Day comes around each year on April 22, but it’s really just a launch day for the rest of the year — all year long Seagate is very active in developing and maintaining sustainable, responsible practices that are good for our business, as well as the environment. Our sustainability initiatives and accomplishments are highlighted in our FY2015 Global Citizenship Annual Report (GCAR).
This week is always a good reminder of the positive impact our efforts are having on the environment. I’ve noted a few highlights below. These and a lot more are included in the GCAR. I encourage you to take a look.
Environmental Highlights
- Reduced our electricity consumption per storage capacity shipped by 872 MWh-per-exabyte from FY2014. This means that for every exabyte we shipped, we saved the equivalent emissions of 127 passenger vehicles being driven for one year (calculated using EPA calculator).
- Decreased the amount of solid waste generated by 2,341 tons. We recycle 80 percent of our solid waste, so this means we are saving the equivalent of 974 cubic meters of landfill space (calculated based on density for 672 common materials).
- No hazardous waste was sent to landfills for the second year in a row.
- All HDD parts from suppliers are conflict-free verified or in process of verification.
- Saved more than 27,000 MWh of electricity from multiple energy-conservation projects, surpassing our FY2015 target of 20,000 MWh.
- Decreased water intensity (megaliters-per-exabyte shipped) by 7 percent from calendar year 2013 to calendar year 2014. So, for each exabyte shipped we used over a million less gallons of water. We also recycled 18 percent of the water we used. We also decreased total usage by 564 megaliters year-over-year, or the equivalent of over 1000 Olympic-sized swimming pools of water!
Every Day at Seagate
In addition to asking employees to leave their cars at home on Earth Day, Seagate employees express their commitment to the environment in a range of ways all year, from a campaign to encourage colleagues to rethink the use of “single-use” items such as plastic bags and foam containers; to runs and nature walks; e-waste collection; tree planting; volunteering at a local community garden; and sponsoring a children’s environmental poster design contest.
Brian Martin is Seagate’s senior director of Environmental Health, Safety and Sustainability
