Wasn’t the headline you were expecting was it? Was the farthest thing from my mind as well as I set out on a week and a half in Asia. I typically go to Asia a couple of times a year to visit our manufacturing operations and meet with colleagues and government officials. In my 13 years at Intel, I had never visited our India operations, largely because it is a series of office buildings and there is not much to do from an environmental standpoint, or so I thought.
The vast majority of Intel’s India workforce is located in Bangalore, a growing high-tech city with many environmental challenges common in developing countries and regions. So what I found at our Bangalore offices surprised me. All water and sewage from the site is treated and reused for irrigating the landscape around the site. Rainwater is collected during the wet seasons and used during dryer seasons for landscaping. In total ~95% of sites landscape irrigation needs are met with reuse water from the site itself. Likewise nothing goes to waste. All solid wastes at the sites are recycled, far surpassing our overall corporate wide recycling rate of 87%. An active energy efficiency campaign is under way with projects implemented that save tens of thousands of kW-hrs each year. A LEED assessment has been completed and an e-waste collection event kicked off on Earth Day. Nearly 80% of the employees volunteer in the community with a growing number of volunteer projects focused on the environment.
OK, I have to admit that I was aware of some of this activity and had met with several of our CSR and EHS leaders in India to discuss ideas and facilitate projects. However, I was not prepared for the full range of activities and the vigor or excitement that I met when discussing environmental topics. I left India with ideas for many of our other office buildings around the globe, far too often at the bottom of the environmental priority list due to their small contribution to our overall footprint. Well done Intel India – you’ve raised the environmental bar!
Todd Brady is the Director of Global Public Affairs and Sustainability for Intel Corporation. In this role he leads state and local government affairs, media and community relations, corporate volunteerism and sustainability at the company's major manufacturing and office locations around the globe. In addition to overseeing regulatory and community engagement strategies in the US, China, Southeast Asia, Israel, Ireland and Latin America, he directs Intel’s global initiatives to make Intel “smart & green” by leading corporate-wide sustainability programs such as climate, energy and water conservation, green design and the integration of internet of things (IoT) solutions to create smart and green offices, buildings and facilities of the future. During his 20+ years at Intel, Todd has represented the company publicly in numerous forums and led industry-wide initiatives in many national and international committees. He has authored more than 20 papers in scientific journals and conference proceedings on a variety of sustainability topics. In 2009, he was named by Scientific American as one of ten outstanding leaders involved in research, business or policy pursuits that have advanced science and technology. Todd holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Brigham Young University and a MS in Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.