NetApp’s egalitarian culture and down-to-earth management methods catapulted them to the #1 spot on Fortune Magazine’s Top 100 Companies to Work For in 2009. It has also kept them profitable through tough economic times, and infused their green work culture with a uniquely creative, communal flavor.
GreenTech TV.com spoke with the driver of their environmental initiatives, Laura Pickering, Vice President at NetApp, and learned about their unique e-waste reduction program, creative solutions to going green during tough economic times, and the impact green commitment can have on employee recruitment.
KAREN:
Let’s start by talking a little bit about your overall green strategy.
LAURA:
At NetApp, we’re trying to reduce the overall environmental impact of our products, our processes, and our operations around the world. And we measure that through two different areas. One is by how much energy we use and we have goals set to reduce that energy. And also waste reduction, specifically the waste that is contributed to landfills. One of the things that I’m very passionate about is raising the bar-- going beyond our LEED certified buildings and office recycling programs to find creative ways to further reduce our overall negative impact on the environment.
KAREN:
Your electronic refurbishment program seems to fit into that category. Can you tell us about it?
LAURA:
We recycle our own equipment and equipment that comes in as customer trade-ins or returns by refurbishing them and then donating them to the community for non-profit use. The program has been a huge success. We have more requests than we can fulfill because our employees know about the program and actively make requests for non-profit organizations they’re affiliated with. We fulfill every request that we can, and we’re doing pretty well with keeping up. We’re definitely reducing the amount of e-waste that’s being sent to landfills.
KAREN:
Obviously NetApp is internationally recognized as having an egalitarian, participatory corporate culture. How does that play out in terms of strengthening your green grassroots efforts?
LAURA:
I think so. Even though we have a core Green Team, and an extended group of employees who actively work together on green initiatives, a lot of what we do is driven by requests and ideas that come from our employee population and often they’re a specific, individual request that then makes sense to extend into a program.
KAREN:
Can you give us some examples?
LAURA:
About a year ago someone came to me and said, “I love to garden, do you mind if I take the break room coffee grounds home with me because they’re great for the soil.” And now we have compost bins in the break rooms and the coffee grounds go in them, and people take it home at night and put it in their gardens.
You know, even little things can make a big impact. And these things are everywhere. We just need to stop and think a little differently about what we’re doing.
KAREN:
Earlier in our conversation you mentioned the need to be creative during tough economic times. How do you do that?
LAURA:
One of the basic issues we face today is funding for green initiatives. However, all of the programs that we’ve wanted to start, we’ve been able to start. But sometimes that means we don’t go down the traditional path of executive funding, we just figure out a way to do it ourselves.
KAREN:
Can you give us an example of one of your creative solutions?
LAURA:
Last summer we were in the process of building employee awareness around green transportation choices but we really didn’t have the funds to institute a major program beyond education. One of our interns enjoys writing games and is a great programmer, so he wrote an application that matches people based on where they live, time of day preferences, days of the week, things like that. It’s a great service because one of the biggest challenges with carpooling is how to find people to carpool with!
KAREN:
NetApp is famous for having a participatory corporate culture, and you’ve reaped the employee recruitment benefits that come with that. Do you think your green initiatives move the needle incrementally in regard to recruitment?
LAURA:
Absolutely, especially with the next-generation of workforce. This generation is much more interested in trying to help in the arena of sustainability. They understand the global problems that we are facing and want to participate once they get out of college. So they’re very interested in working for companies that also have those same interests. That’s been my impression, and in fact I recently read an article that said students coming out of college are using the environmental initiatives of a company now as one of their decision criteria for making a job choice.
KAREN:
It’s obvious that your NetApp’s internal green culture is thriving. In Part 2 of our interview I’d like to discuss some of the ways you’re reaching out to customers and partners to help drive sustainability practices into the larger community.
LAURA:
Yes, working with our partners to build energy efficient data centers and extending those learnings out to our customers is having a very big and positive impact on global environmental sustainability. We have some great ideas to share.