Green Retrofitting: Corporate Responsibility That Makes Sense

Yesterday, I wrote about a new direction for ServInt’s social media outreach. Basically, I explained that a lot of companies, ServInt included, spend too much time talking about themselves and not enough time talking about their customers. I made a new rule saying that we’d talk more about you .

So, naturally, I’m going to kick that off by talking about us .

Earth Week 2010 is coming to a close and as such I thought it appropriate to reflect on a few of our specific accomplishments in green technology. In our more than 15 year history, we’ve been relatively silent trailblazers. We are pioneers in dedicated and VPS hosting and we were one of the first hosts to actively work on improving inefficient and environmentally troubling urban infrastructure. With that being said, there are some unique challenges that we face precisely because of our status as trailblazers.

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ServInt Recycles! A look Inside ServInt’s Latest Recycling Initiative

As I’m sure you know by now, ServInt has been in the webhosting business for more than 15 years.

In that time, we’ve built literally tons of servers along with truly massive network infrastructure literally all across the country. As we’ve grown and remained competitive, we’ve had to upgrade our hardware to keep up. We’ve been recycling our equipment cyclically for years. As we continually update our infrastructure, we phase out legacy hardware for newer, faster, more efficient equipment.

Recently, we completed another recycling project that encompassed all of our data centers on the East Coast. This particular run wasn’t our largest, but it was an interesting example of just how much hardware a hosting company requires over a relatively short period of time.

I travelled to our data centers in Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., snapped a few pictures of the stacks of old racked servers on their way to being recycled as well as hundreds of hard drives on their way to being shredded. When all was said and done, we recycled roughly 6 tons of equipment and shredded over 740 hard drives during this recycling run alone!

So, without further ado, here are a few of our favorite photos.

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Intelligent Offsets: Planting Our Way to A Cleaner Planet

This week, all of us at ServInt are proud to celebrate Earth Week. While environmental protection is always on our mind, this week gives us the opportunity to focus on our actual accomplishments and lay out a strategy to take it one step further.

Planting the Seed

Earlier this month, ServInt completed its reforestation goals for the first quarter of 2010. Our goal is to not only be carbon neutral, but to be carbon positive. In our case that meant that we would go from offsetting 110% of our VPS line’s carbon emissions to 110% of our entire inventory across product lines. This year, amid our rapid growth in the DC area and our expansion to the West Coast, we plan to do it again.

Now, we know that offsets are a controversial topic for some. Many offsets are vague with labyrinthine paths to the sources and companies they claim are actually delivering renewable energy. We know there are issues with the efficiency of many of these organizations, whether the funds one donates are being used to effectively advance clean energy or whether the funds are getting lost in administration.

But we had to do something. Having been in business for more than 15 years, our customers expect premium performance. That requires the best pipes in the world, and there are few places with better connectivity than the Washington, D.C. metro area and the Los Angeles metro area. Instead of building a cheap warehouse and laying fiber out in the middle of nowhere, the nature of our business required us to build our data centers where the traffic is and that meant building in urban areas.

For months, we exhaustively researched where to purchase offsets and from whom. We  didn’t want to throw money out into the ether and claim we were helping the planet. We wanted accountability, efficiency, and a partnership with an organization that was actually doing good.

A Growing Company, In More Ways Than One

ServInt is an official corporate patron of American Forests.

ServInt, along with companies as distinguished as Ikea, Mcdonalds, Paul Mitchell, and Coca-Cola, offsets its carbon emissions by planting trees that, over time, gobble it back up. As we mentioned before, we offset 110% of the carbon emissions of our entire product line on top of our ongoing integration of more energy efficient equipment and our development of software to aid us in pursuit of staying carbon positive!

American Forests has a Four Star rating from Charity Navigator in both its Organizational Efficiency (the percentage of its revenue that is used for its mission as opposed to administrative costs) and its Organizational Capacity (its ability to grow effectively).

ServInt is a company that cares about the planet. We have a reputation to uphold, and as such we are proud to partner with American Forests for the third year in a row!

Click here to learn more about American Forests.

Photo by gilderic.

Being Candid About Being Green

Right up there with “The Cloud”, Green hosting has been a heavily trafficked buzzword in our industry for nearly 3 years.

In 2008, ServInt began retrofitting its data centers and, in combination with a massive investment in reforestation projects all over the world, we became climate positive within one year. We strive to be green because we know we have to, we have a responsibility to do so as a growing business with international clientele who expect their hosting company to understand the impact it has on the world around them.

In other words, we get it and want to do our part for the right reasons.

More after the jump.

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Web Hosting: Making A Difference & Changing the World

Earlier today we announced that I have been named ServInt’s Chief Operating Officer (COO). It is a promotion from within – I’ve been with the company for over 11 years now, having started in 1998 as the assistant to the Director of Marketing. It’s been quite a journey!

I wanted to use this as an opportunity to talk a bit about my goals, and my thoughts about the web hosting industry as a whole. I think I have a unique perspective, because I have been in this industry for a long time but I’ve never really become a ‘techie’. To be honest, I don’t  have much of a geek background or a real passion for technology.

When I started at ServInt 11 years ago I was basically a kid – full of passion and ideas. I wanted to change the world, and I certainly wasn’t going to do it working for some tech company. I thought I’d give it a year or two, learn a bit and plot my next move. I didn’t know what to make of the web hosting industry, but it didn’t seem “Important.”

And yet I found myself sticking around, year after year. My job evolved as I kept taking on more and more responsibilities. I loved every stage, learning and growing each step along the way. Now, as I take on even more responsibility I am looking back and trying to figure out why this job has exceeded all of the expectations I had for it and kept me interested and engaged. After all, I wasn’t looking for this. I wanted to find a way to change the world.

With hindsight, I can tell you exactly why I fell in love with this job.

Working at ServInt, I’ve been changing the world all along!

This is a truth that I just didn’t see coming.

My younger self figured I’d need to move on in order to make a difference and do important things. That younger version of me had no idea. I work for an important company – one that is making a difference, and continues to change the world on a daily basis – on a small scale and a grand one. In my job I get to make a huge impact  on people’s lives every day. The fact that I’ve been able to do that for over 11 years and counting is just incredible!

How does a company like ServInt change the world?

As a business-class web hosting provider, we basically build homes on the Internet. We give websites a place to operate – so that business owners and their employees can follow their dreams and earn a living for their families.

You may think of web hosting as an ‘infrastructure’ service, but I get to work for a company that is more than that. Our company prides itself on being the most service-oriented web host out there – and often times that is great fun. We talk with our customers, and we help them achieve their goals.  I get to work with companies every day looking to put their thoughts into action. When the dreams that we help build are actualized, it changes lives.

These ‘homes on the Internet’ that ServInt builds don’t just change individual lives either. Over the course of the past 11 to 15 years they have changed everybody’s life. Web based businesses, many of the very ones ServInt hosts, have changed how everybody gathers and shares information. They have changed the way we all communicate. When I started, the Internet existed but was less important to most than either the telephone or cable television. Today most everybody I know would give up phone, television and a lot of other things before they would ever give up their Internet access.

The technologies that my industry has helped fuel have not just changed how we stay in touch with our friends and family or how we get our news, weather, directions, goods or entertainment. They have also changed how we can get our own ideas out there. They have given everybody a louder voice, and when used responsibly this power can move mountains. This industry has given people the power to gather and mobilize for change like never before. The industry I am a part of is busy changing both China and Iran from within, as it has changed much of the rest of the world.

I think in the past 11 years the world dove into the deep-end of a new Information Age, facilitated directly by ServInt and companies like us. It has been an incredible ride, and one I wouldn’t trade for anything. In a more tangible way than I could have dreamed possible, I have been able to be a part of changing the world. I look forward to continuing to do so as ServInt’s COO.

As a final note, I have one of the first conference speaking sessions at HostingCon, which starts today. My session starts at 11:00 AM and I plan to discuss “green” Web Hosting - another thing I am proud to have been a part of here at ServInt. I hope that you can join us!

Christian Dawson
Chief Operating Officer
ServInt

Going to HostingCon? Check out our Presentation on Green Hosting!

In the midst of all of our recent accolades, I’d like to remind anyone attending next week’s HostingCon in our lovely nation’s capital that our very own Christian Dawson will be giving a presentation on green hosting at 11 am on Monday the 10th.

For more information, click here for Monday’s schedule.

I’ll be there as well, so don’t hesitate to say hi.

If you’re in town, check it out!

The Annual ServInt Employee Picnic

We’re known as a bunch of hard-working folks who keep our customers online through thick and thin, 24/7/365. As an institution that’s true, but at the end of the day ServInt is comprised of individuals – each with our own goals and obligations, interests and challenges. Working hard can be stressful so it’s great that every year ServInt throws a big company picnic and gives (almost) all of us a chance to blow off steam!

Each year we gather up as many of ServInt’s employees and their families as we can and have a great day of fun and games here in Northern Virginia. This weekend we threw 2009′s picnic – by far the best one yet!

What’s so great is seeing the children running around having fun. When the company started 14 years ago there weren’t many children running around at events we threw. Nowadays it seems like the kids outnumber the employees!

One of the cool little games we had going on was something called a Pitchburst. The concept is the same as a ‘dunk tank’ but instead of wasting hundreds of gallons of water, you accomplish the same goal with a water balloon suspended over the head of the victim. It is just as much fun, but a whole lot better for the environment.

During the picnic, employees got to take turns soaking their managers. It was all for a good cause too – for every direct hit ServInt agreed to plant an extra 3 trees in ServInt’s reforestation project. I’m not even sure we’ve even managed to tally up just how many trees that will end up being… though I know it’ll be a lot. It’s been a couple of days now, and I feel like I’m still drying out!

-Christian

PS: The manager getting soaked in the attached picture is Curtis Berry, our Director of Information. The guy knows just about everything there is to know about management information systems… he knows database management better than anybody else I know… but none of that could spare him from the merciless attacks that came from his coworkers. He was not alone! ;)

Green is for the family

I often point out that ServInt has more years actively providing service to the industry than many of our competitors do months. ServInt started in 1995, a lifetime ago in this industry. That’s one of the things that makes us better. We have experience that competitors only dream of. Hot ‘up and coming’ providers have come and gone, and we’ve been here to learn from their mistakes (as well as some of our own). We’re the steadfast and reliable alternative to the shiny new kid on the block – the host you can choose and know that they’ll take care of you for years to come, not just through this week’s special promotion.

It was a natural fit to adopt ‘green’ as part of our culture, because longevity and sustainability have always been what we’re about. It’s why we have grown organically without taking on debt to fuel growth. It’s how we survived and thrived through the ‘dot com’ boom and bust.

Above all else, it is our people that set ServInt apart. Because we are a place where you can build a career and a life, we attract the best and brightest. The same culture that embraces ‘green’ embraces the idea of ‘family’, because both look towards what’s right for tomorrow.

Each spring ServInt holds a company picnic. We enjoy the day together, play games and relax. Each year, a few employees pass their ’10 years of service’ mark and receive a company watch. Our dedication to our employees, and to longevity, is palpable. What strikes me more than anything else, though, is just how family-friendly ServInt is as a place to work. Every year I am amazed watching the ServInt family grow. Every year I meet new infants, congratulate newly expectant parents and marvel at how fast the kids I DO know are growing.

Whatever we are doing, we are doing for them.

We call our clients “The ServInt Family” as well, and we are absolutely motivated by what’s right for them. Whether we are making decisions that affect our children, our clients or our clients’ children, we do it knowing that we’re in it for the long-haul. ServInt is a place where people build careers. ‘Green’ is one aspect of that, mostly because it fits in to our long-term strategy – to be your host, and maybe one day your children’s host.

-Christian

Green is for the home

Happy Earth Day everybody!

I was going to take the day off from work today, in order to complete one of my own personal Earth Day goals. But Earth Day around ServInt is particularly busy, so I’m postponing my goals for the moment. Instead I would like to share them with you here.

I am going to go meet my farmers.

“Green” means different things to different people, and each of us has our own goals and our own comfort levels with making changes that positively impact our environments. I am not trying to evangelize or to change any minds here. I just wanted to give a quick glimpse at some of my own current green goals, because they may be slightly different than some of the ones you’ll be hearing all Earth Day long.

Of course, those are important, so let’s get a few of them out of the way:

Buy and use compact fluorescent bulbs. Don’t drive when you can walk. Carpool or use public transportation when you can. Think about taking the stairs instead of the elevator. Look into hybrid vehicles. Get some reusable shopping bags. Recycle. Turn off stuff when you leave the room. Use low-flow showers and toilets. Give a hoot, don’t pollute.

To those helpful (and hopefully not condescending) suggestions I add one – consider going to meet the people who make the food you buy, and to see how it’s made.

“Organic” is a buzzword that has been overused almost as much as “green”.  When my son was born in 2007 we thought we ought to try to eat organic, but needed to do a bit of research to figure out why, and what that meant to us. I was heavily influenced by two books written by Michael Pollan – In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto,  and  The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. The ‘hero’ of the latter is a Virginia farmer named Joel Salatin, who talks about the benefits of small, sustainable farming. He makes a shockingly compelling case.

Most food (even the stuff sold at places like Whole Foods) comes from industrialized farms. I am not going to go into too many details about what that means, or whether that’s a good or bad thing. All I’ll say is that in America the small farmers struggle to survive. That’s a shame, because many of them are doing some wonderful things.

In 2007 my wife and I joined a CSA. That’s a Community Supported Agriculture group, which links consumers directly with a local farm at the beginning of a growing season. We pre-purchase produce for the season, and are shipped fresh vegetables and fruits every week. We never know what we’re going to get, but what we DO get tastes great.

An example:

Before we joined the CSA, I disliked tomatoes. They were a favorite when I was growing up, but by the time I hit adulthood they had fallen out of favor. When we started receiving our CSA tomatoes my opinion changed immediately. Fresh, locally grown heirloom tomatoes tasted like the tomatoes from my childhood – delicious.

We also started buying meat, eggs and dairy from a group that went out to Virginia-based small, sustainable farms and brings them up to Northern Virginia. The group is called The Local Flavor.

I’ve really enjoyed learning about my food, and really thinking about the way I eat. What I have yet to do is meet my farmers. So in the next 2 weeks I’ll be going to visit the place we get most of our fruits and vegetables and most of our meat, dairy and eggs. That’s my personal green goal at the moment.

Again, I’m not evangelizing here. I just wanted to share some of my own personal thoughts and green goals. I thought it would be a nice break from talking business, and a different way of celebrating Earth Day. Everybody has their own story to tell. This is a small piece of mine.

-Christian

Green is for the business

You already know the case for ‘going green’ in your daily life. You are being marketed-to every day about the benefits of environmental awareness. Some campaigns appeal to your emotions, asking you to “do it because it’s the right thing to do”, but the more effective ones couple that with the practical reasons to try and make a difference.

If you buy compact fluorescent bulbs, the packaging tells you in big letters and numbers what your power savings will be over time. Those bulbs are more expensive, but if you are willing to make a larger than normal investment up-front the benefits will pay off long-term. Not only do you get a bulb that costs less to run, you also get one that is longer-lasting than the filament-based alternative. If you are planning on staying in your house a long time, switching to compact fluorescents is a wise investment. At the end of the day, it’s just the smart thing to do.

The foundation of ServInt’s “Green Initiative” isn’t any different than that. It starts with smart business, pure and simple, and we build on it from there.

Let’s break it down as simple as possible.  Hosting uses enormous amounts of power. We use it to run all our equipment, and to back up that equipment, and to cool that equipment, and so on. Power is expensive, and it’s costs continue to climb. The technology exists to lower the necessary power footprint used by the average hosting client. It requires a larger than normal up-front investment.

But just like the compact fluorescent bulb, it saves money on energy. It also generates less heat, so it costs less to cool. And since temperature (even in highly controlled environments) is a top cause of hardware failure, it breaks less often. That’s why ServInt decided to go exclusively Dell low-voltage on its entire server and VPS host-server line. It was just the smart thing to do.

Our overall power reduction became dramatic when we started developing ‘DSR’ VPS technology – VPS products designed specifically to replace traditional Dedicated Servers. We were able to combine high-end, low-voltage Dell hardware technology with our Parallels Virtuozzo Containers-based proprietary VPS solutions in a way that provided customers with more hosting resources and redundancy than they had when they were in their own servers. That lowered our overall per-user power footprint dramatically.

Now ServInt can do more in a smaller footprint. With our Dedicated Server Replacement (DSR) VPSs, we can give you significantly more hosting capabilities and redundancy  on a VPS than you can get on comparably priced server. Our investments have paid off in tangible ways. By making the right investments, we’ve accomplished goals on a grand scale that are fundamentally no different than the investments you make in switching to compact fluorescents.

Reducing ServInt’s average per-user power footprint is only one component of our much larger Green Initiative, but it’s a vitally important one. Your business can surely take a look at your own operations, and can find ways to invest in ‘going green’, which is quite often synonymous with ‘increasing overall efficiency’.  A lot of ‘going green’ can be accomplished by simply being practical and making smart, forward-looking decisions.

-Christian

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