Focused on Building Environmentally Sustainable Networks
By Martin Gothberg
St. Environmental Health and Safety Engineer
Sustainable business practices are key to Infinera. In March, Infinera’s Green Team hosted Acterra’s Green Team Spring Forum, where Silicon Valley-based leaders met to focus on sustainability and environmental protection efforts, share successes and challenges, and support each other. Acterra’s Silicon Valley Green Team Network brings together volunteer representatives from companies and organizations who strive to increase sustainability within their workplaces and inspire their colleagues to make sustainable choices at work, at home and in their communities.
Hosting the event enabled Infinera to share insights with 54 representatives from 30 Bay Area organizations, including Adobe, IBM, LinkedIn, NASA Ames, Symantec, The Tech Museum of Innovation, Presidio Graduate School and Santa Clara University, just to name a few. The event was kicked off by Infinera’s Michael Capuano, VP of Marketing, who gave an overview of Infinera’s sustainability program, goals and recent successes in the areas of business ethics, product responsibility, environmental responsibility and social responsibility.
Highlights of the event included:
- A speaker panel with representatives from Genentech, Farmscape, and Global Student Embassy sharing insights on how to engage employees on sustainability initiatives.
- A hands-on breakout session where participants discussed starting up and keeping Green Team efforts on track.
- Networking opportunities where attendees informally shared information on environmental responsibility initiatives.
Other recent activities demonstrating Infinera’s commitment to environmental responsibility include:
- Sunnyvale, California Energy Reduction Project: Infinera recently completed an energy reduction project in its building at 140 Caspian Court in Sunnyvale, a joint effort between Infinera, Comfort International, and the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) that included a host of enhancements including a new building management system, new variable frequency drives (VFDs), additional controls on existing VFDs, new zone controllers, and other modifications to allow the most energy efficient operation of the building. The new system will allow Infinera to participate in PG&E’s Automatic Demand Response program (ADR). The combination of participating in ADR and the increase in operational efficiencies will reduce energy use in this building and save over $100,000 per year in energy costs. This follows a similar energy reduction project implemented in the 169 Java Drive building in Sunnyvale in 2015.
Allentown Facility Landfill-free Initiative: Infinera’s Allentown, Pennsylvania facility exercises environmental responsibility by remaining 100% landfill-free. The facility employs a single-stream recycling service that hauls all recyclables. Anything not recycled is transported to the Covanta Plymouth Renewable Energy plant, which incinerates 1,216 tons of municipal solid waste per day and produces more than 32 megawatts of power.
- Annapolis Junction Landfill-reduction Project: Infinera’s Annapolis Junction, Maryland facility has been maximizing the value of equipment that is either no longer usable or needed. Recently, 122 items were sent to auction. The non-functional items were sold, resulting in funds for reinvestment, the freeing up of space and alleviated landfill waste.
Bangalore Office Landfill-reduction Project:Since implementing its compost program in June 2016, Infinera’s office in Bangalore has diverted more than 15,252 pounds of wet waste from landfills. In addition to the compost program, the Bangalore office has increased recycling of laptop e-waste and implemented sustainable practices it its cafeteria and gym.
To learn more about Infinera’s environmental responsibility efforts, click here.
Related links: