Seagate was recognized as the greenest storage device manufacturer by Newsweek in their 2009 Green Rankings of Fortune 500 companies. Seagate was ranked 182 positions higher than its nearest competitor on the list.
Just as significantly, Seagate is a strategic supplier to the #1, #2 and #4 ranked technology companies – HP, Dell and IBM. Seagate’s focus on sustainability contributes directly to its customers’ ability to be green.
Why would Seagate be rated so much higher than its competitors? I can’t speak for Newsweek, but here are some things to consider:
Seagate drives are more efficient. Seagate’s low-power Barracuda LP was recently tested by Maximum PC and shown to use less power and run 20% faster than similar low-power drives from other manufacturers. Sometimes it pays to look beyond a product’s “green” label to its actual performance.
Seagate leads the industry in environmental transparency. Most storage device manufacturers are aware of the exact make-up of <1% of materials in their products. Why? Because those are the toxic materials that their customers hold them accountable for. Seagate tracks 96% of the materials in their hard drives from all of their suppliers, with a goal to track 100%. This documented understanding allows Seagate to respond quickly and with credible data as their customers choose to monitor or restrict new materials.
It takes more than a product name to be truly “green”.
[…] The Storage Effect » What it means to be green in the storage industry […]
[…] However, my contact as Seagate was able to put these concerns to rest. The FreeAgent Go goes into standby mode when not in use (and the light can be turned off in the Seagate Manager settings so that it’s not staying on either), and it’s total power consumption per year is between $1.50 and $2.00. She also sent me this great blog post, outlining some of Seagate’s green efforts. […]
[…] I wrote last month about how being green in the storage industry goes far beyond just lowering the power consumption. Here’s a video that lets you hear it straight from the people at Seagate living and breathing our green efforts. […]
Wow that was odd. I just wrote an extremely long comment on http://blog.seagate.com/business/what-it-means-to-be-green-in-the-storage-industry but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t show up. Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Anyways, just wanted to say fantastic blog!
[…] However, my contact as Seagate was able to put these concerns to rest. The FreeAgent Go goes into standby mode when not in use (and the light can be turned off in the Seagate Manager settings so that it’s not staying on either), and it’s total power consumption per year is between $1.50 and $2.00. She also sent me this great blog post, outlining some of Seagate’s green efforts. […]