EMC Sustainability Report: $7.5m in Server Cost Savings

by | Jun 25, 2010

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EMC reported it generated $7.5 million in energy savings over five years by virtualizing and consolidating its servers and data storage, according to the company’s 2009 sustainability report. According to the company, that’s the equivalent of 27,000 tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, or the equivalent of 1,000 cars. It also saved 2,250,000 kwh in electricity in 2009.

The company recently partnered with Cisco, MIT and the University of Massachussetts on a new $100 million green data center in Holyoke, Mass.

The company said it plans to continue with its virtualization program and will reach 100 percent server virtualization this year. EMC also touted its use of solid state drives in enterprise storage, which they said offer energy efficiency in high-performance computing, using up to 97.7 percent less energy in operations per second than FC/SAS drives, and 38 percent less energy per terabyte of data stored.

The company also said its power supplies average above 85 percent efficiency and that it has a goal of using power supplies with 90 percent efficiency or greater in all of its enterprise storage platforms.

It also reported that it achieved a 21 percent reduction below 2005 levels in GHG emissions per square foot in our U.S. owned or operated facilities. Emissions intensity per US dollar revenue decreased in 2009 to 11 percent below 2005 levels without RECs and 25 percent below 2005 levels with RECs.

EMC first committed to reducing GHG emissions in 2004, and is targeting an 80 percent reduction below 200 levels by 2050. That includes a target of reaching peak absolute emissions by 2015, and implies a 30 percent reduction in GHG per revenue intensity below 2005 levels by 2012 and 40 percent reduction by 2015.

The company also reduced business travel since 2008, resulting in cost savings and a 21 percent reduction in travel emissions from its 2007 baseline. It is also targeting a 15 percent reduction in fuel consumption in its European fleet in 2010, and a 25 percent reduction by 2013 when the policy will be fully implemented.

Meanwhile, EMC said it is working to reduce its contribution to landfill waste by composting 39 tons of solid waste at its Massachusetts facilities, while a packaging redesign saved 13,000 kilograms of waste. The company also said it reuses more than 15 million liters of treated “gray” water annually for cooling, sanitation, and irrigation. Unused water is returned to the ground through infiltration systems to replenish local watersheds. In 2010, the company plans to increase water re-use rates by 30 percent.

EMC also stated a goal to reduce brominated flame retardants and polyvinyl chlorides in its products by 50 percent by this year.

EMC was recently named number 19 on the 2010 Top 100 Best Corporate Citizens list.

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