Earth Day Reflection: CSR is a 365 Day a Year Commitment, Measurement is Key

In November of 2020, I moved to the San Diego area. One of the first things I did at my new home was install solar panels. My response to the question regarding the expense of buying the panels outright as against the ROI was and is, “it’s a crime not to have solar panels in sunny San Diego.” Generating natural energy at my home is my tiny part of removing the pressure on the grid (SDGE in this case) and helping manage our energy crisis. But at Extreme Networks, where I lead our CSR efforts, we are going a lot further. We recognize we’re not the biggest player in the industry, but we often say, “we punch above our weight.” That’s true for our contributions to sustainability.

Since my last Earth Day blog post in 2021, we’ve continued to build on our sustainability efforts.

• In our 2021 fiscal year, the impact of our Bloom Energy fuel cell system was equivalent to 1,683 metric tons of CO₂ reduction, 6,863 kg of NOx reduction, 582 kg of SO₂ reduction, and 355 million gallons of water reduction.
• The carbon reduction was equivalent to the carbon sequestered by 2,054 acres of US forests in a year.
• We continued encouraging use of our electric vehicle charging stations at our offices that have them, we overachieved our goal of reducing storage on tape by 90% (actually, we completely eliminated it last year!), and we are on track to completing our product refresh using next-generation silicon that enables lower power dissipation for equivalent function.

When you get a chance, check out our full 2021 CSR Report for more information about what we accomplished last year. It’s awesome!

How are we moving forward and improving on these fronts? We all know that what gets measured gets done. Starting here:

• In June 2021, we asked a third party to complete a Materiality Assessment of all our CSR initiatives to help ensure that we at Extreme focus our efforts to where we’ll have the most impact.
• We realigned our CSR Council and goals to best align with the results of that Materiality Assessment.
• We plan on auditing our environmental goals. Our first step, in many cases, will be to establish a baseline from which to measure.
• We started using Watch Wire, a sustainability and energy management platform, that allows us to track and view energy and sustainability data across facilities on a single dashboard.

Goals and metrics are the next step of maturity in our sustainability efforts, so we have been thoughtfully setting goals and putting measurable plans into action. Being able to gauge energy usage on a regular and consistent basis will lead to changes that we believe will make a difference. For example, we’ve already learned that the simple act of just turning off certain lab equipment when we’re not using it could achieve measurable energy savings company wide. To say we are focused on metrics is an understatement.

Today, on this Earth Day, we encourage each of you also to focus on your goals and metrics around reducing energy consumption and increasing sustainability efforts. And don’t forget to get those solar panels… especially if you live in SoCal.