October 14, 2009

Thales Cuts Energy Use 10%, CO2 Emissions 4%

Bookmark and Share Email this story Print this post Add your comments

By using cleaner energy and employee’s efforts to reduce energy consumption, Thales has achieved a ten percent reduction in fossil fuel consumption and a 3.8 percent decrease in energy-related CO2 emissions from buildings in 2008, according to the company’s 2008 Corporate Responsibility Annual Report (PDF). Thales also has decreased CO2 emissions from sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) by 17 percent in 2008 and by 40 percent since 2006.

Changes in employee behavior including the use of travel options with less carbon emissions also has helped reduce the company’s carbon footprint per employee by 2 percent in 2008. It has also led to a 4.5 percent decrease in energy consumption per employee and a 17 percent decrease in water consumption. The company also has recovered 68 percent of its non-hazardous waste in 2008.

Key goals of Thales’ environmental policy and action plans include reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reducing consumption of energy and natural resources, limiting waste output and promoting recycling and re-use, and managing atmospheric emissions and liquid effluent.

The global technology provider for the aerospace, space, defense, security and transportation markets has started to design more environmentally-friendly products and systems. As an example, the company has introduced a new motion system, eMk2, for flight simulators, which delivers an 80 percent savings in power consumption compared to existing full flight simulators.

Thales is also greening its IT departments. Two of the group’s six data centers have shown significant results, according to the report. In Elancourt, France, new generation inverters have decreased electricity consumption by 10 percent, and in-row cooling systems have cut energy spending by 15 to 30 percent. In addition, by replacing and optimizing the cooling systems, the data centers have decreased electricity consumption by an additional 10 percent.

In Doncaster, UK, the data center’s free-cooling system has cut the energy bill by 13 percent and the investment has paid for itself in less than two years. The optimization of IT resources and the virtualization of more than 2,000 servers have decreased the number of servers by 25 percent and their usage by 20 percent.

The technology company is also selecting more eco-friendly suppliers. In its request for proposals for office supplies, Thales now includes environmental factors such as eco-friendly products with less packaging, which has resulted in a penetration rate of 30 percent for green office supplies.

Thales is a founding member of the Clean Sky initiative by industry and the European Commission to reduce the air transport sector’s environmental impact, targeting a 60 percent reduction in NOx, 40 percent cut in CO2 and a 50 percent reduction in noise.

Bookmark and Share Email this story Print this post Add your comments

Advertisers

Join the Discussion

Get EL Daily in your inbox, subscribe to free newsletter

Recent Daily News [ see all ]

  • 02/09/2010
  • 02/08/2010
  • 02/05/2010

Recent Jobs

Post a Job
Jobs powered by Simply Hired

Comments and Discussions

John Bergdoll on Accidental to Purposeful Sustainability: Using What You Already Have to Grow Sustainability
"I was following the logic your article..."

Liz Amason on Clorox Comes Clean With Chemical Content on Web Site
"But look at their ingredients listings. For example, their regular liquid bleach..."

Rigidflexibility on Companies Going Green Should Ignore Green Consumer
"I was about to market a metal working fluid that is 98>% Soybean oil and..."

Stuart on Canadian Environment Minister Denounces Quebec Vehicle Emissions Regs
"Canadians have been waiting for the feds to act on climate change for..."

Steve Wolford on Sports Teams Embrace Sustainability
"Hello Environmental Leader, We just returned from the National Sport Forum in Baltimore. Team and..."

Mauibrad on Bipartisan Senatorial Effort Seeks Cap and Trade for non-CO2 Emissions
"Finally some enlightened ideas out of Congress!"

Cameron Green on Data Centers Can Apply for Energy Star Rating in June
"I did a blog post about this. Essentially PUE doesn’t give you very much..."