Security software firm Symantec reduced its absolute carbon emissions 5 percent year-on-year according to the company’s 2012 corporate responsibility report.
The company reduced its emissions from 199,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in financial year 2011, to 189,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in FY 2012, according to the report, which covers the period from April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012. Symantec has decreased its overall greenhouse gas emissions by four percent since its FY 2008 baseline, the report says.
In FY12 the company reduced its scope 1 emissions by 20 percent year on year, from 6,000 to 5,000 metric tons of CO2. It reduced its scope 2 emissions 4.3 percent from 166,000 to 159,000 metric tons of CO2e, and cut its scope 3 emissions by 11 percent from 27,000 to 24,000 metric tons of CO2e.
Total emissions, not including Symantec’s enterprise data center, have decreased 7 percent since FY 2011 while the emissions from its owned enterprise data center have increased 9 percent since FY 2011.
Symantec says that its most significant energy use and climate change impacts are associated with the power consumption of the company’s research and development labs and data centers. Over the past five years the company has reduced the total physical footprint of its facilities by more than two million square feet as it move to consolidate sites and save energy. The company says it has also implement a number of energy reduction and efficiency projects in data centers and labs.
The company’s energy consumption dropped 11 percent year-on-year, from 1.7 million GJ in FY 2011 to 1.5 million GJ in FY 2012.
Currently, 88 percent of Symantec’s facilities are LEED-certified, and 65 percent are Energy Star certified. In FY 2012, Symantec’s Pune, India, site became the 18th LEED-certified building in its real estate portfolio – achieving Gold status – and 12 facilities received annual Energy Star renewal scores of 75 points or higher. Energy Star buildings use 35 percent less energy on average, and cost $0.50 less per square foot to operate compared with non-Energy Star buildings, the report says. In FY 2011 the company almost doubled its number of LEED-certified buildings from nine to 16.
Symantec’s report only includes waste figures for its Dublin, Ireland, facility. That facility reduced its overall waste generation by almost a quarter, from 168 metric tons in FY 2011 to 127 metric tons in FY 2012. Of those totals, the Dublin facility upped the proportion that is recycled from 93 percent to 94 percent year-on-year, and reduced the proportion sent to landfill by 1 percentage point. In FY 2010 the Dublin facility was recycling just 78 percent of its waste.