Green NVTC Companies

Many NVTC member companies and organizations are involved in efforts to reduce their carbon emissions or offer green consulting services or products. Click on the links below to read their stories and, perhaps, get inspired to green your company's operations too.

Is your company involved in the "green" space or is it taking steps to reduce its carbon footprint? If so, NVTC wants to hear from you. E-mail us at goinggreen@nvtc.org.

Andrews Kurth

At present, the Andrews Kurth team currently is representing clients on the development, finance, construction, operation and maintenance of approximately 77 biofuels projects worldwide. The firm represents clients in the following fuel ethanol facilities: in the United States (14 projects), Brazil (two projects), Argentina (one project), Peru (five projects), Columbia (six projects), Hungary (eight projects), Germany (four projects) and India (four projects), with targets in China, Thailand, Vietnam and Canada. It also currently represents clients on the development, finance, construction, operation and maintenance of biodiesel manufacturing facilities in the United States (four projects), Australia (one project), Brazil (three projects), Argentina (two projects), Peru (five projects), Columbia (four projects), Panama (two projects), India (three projects), Hungary (four projects), Germany (four projects) and Bolivia (one project), with targets in China and Canada. Mark Reidy of Andrews Kurth also has closed renewable power projects worldwide and structured and closed funds for renewable energy investments in India at $20 million. At present, he is structuring the following funds for renewable energy (including fuel ethanol, biodiesel and other biofuels) projects: in the United States (one fund at $250 million), India (one fund at $150 million) and carbon credits in India (two funds at approximately $50 million each). Andrews Kurth also represents clients in seven AIM listings in London to raise money for ethanol and other clean energy projects in the United States and abroad, and is engaging on two additional capital markets listings for ethanol projects in the United States.

Andrews Kurth is ranked No. 2 in the United States and No. 6 internationally in renewable energy, No. 9 worldwide in project finance and as high as No. 1 worldwide in various capital markets listings against millions of law firms worldwide per Dealogic, Euromoney and Project Finance International. The firm's Clean and Renewable Energy Practice Group has more than 30 attorneys worldwide and the firm is currently formalizing its new Climate Change Practice Group, which initially will have more than 10 Andrews Kurth attorneys worldwide.

To view a PDF of the Andrews Kurth presentation, "Renewable Energy versus Biodiesel," at Biodiesel Finance and Investment Summit in January 2008, click here. (.pdf)

To view a PDF of the Andrews Kurth presentation, "Barriers to Financing Indian Renewable Energy," at the US-India Renewable Industry Summit in October 2007, click here. (.pdf)

To view a PDF of the Andrews Kurth presentation, "Renewable and Alternative Fuels Industry," provided to the Israel Ministry of Energy staff in June 2007, click here. (.pdf)

To view a PDF of the Andrews Kurth presentation, "New Beginnings: Financing Biodiesel," at the Renewable Energy Finance & Investment Summit in April 2007, click here. (.pdf)

To review the Andrews Kurth news release on its No. 2 ranking in terms of U.S. renewable energy legal practices, click here. (.doc)

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BetterWorld Telecom

BetterWorld Telecom, a nationwide full-service voice and data telecommunications services carrier based in Reston, received Zerofootprint certification as the first telecom provider in North America to achieve carbon-neutral status. Zerofootprint, based in Toronto, Canada, is an organization that provides information, products and services to people and businesses working to reduce their environmental impact.

A new voice in the $900-billion U.S. telecom services market, BetterWorld Telecom is strongly committed to the environment in its own daily internal business operations and actively helps its customers follow suit by offering a menu of service solutions to help organizations and businesses maintain sustainability. In addition to reducing its ecological impact along every step of the product and service delivery process, BetterWorld focuses on serving businesses and organizations that support social justice and sustainability and donates 3 percent of its revenues to causes that benefit children, education, fair trade and, of course, the environment.

The carbon-neutral status was only the first step in an ongoing commitment towards environmentally sustainable operations. Future goals include working with the U.S. Green Building Council to develop telecom as a LEED certification component, developing a "telecom offset" for all its customers' usage, and rolling out an employee home and personal offset program by 2009, as well as becoming 100 percent environmentally neutral through core business practices and offsets by 2010.

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Consumer Electronics Association

The Consumer Electronics Association emphasizes the importance of innovation and commitment to voluntary programs that produce significant energy savings and keep unwanted products out of landfills. CEA is proud to partner with its members and other organizations to promote environmental sustainability worldwide. This commitment extends beyond its policy and advocacy work and into its actions. In 2008, the CEA-sponsored International CES, the largest consumer technology tradeshow in the world, also became the largest carbon neutral event in history, when CEA offset more than 20,000 tons of carbon emissions through its partnership with CarbonFund. CEA saw the carbon offset program as a part of a broader commitment to overall environmental sustainability by the consumer electronics industry. To extend its commitment to the broader community, in 2007 CEA launched http://www.myGreenElectronics.org, a consumer education initiative which is designed to help consumers recycle their used electronics, calculate their energy consumption and find energy efficient and eco-friendly electronics. CEA members continue to minimize materials of potential concern and use significant amounts of recycled content in the manufacturing process. CEA is pleased to work closely with our members to promote the energy saving and green alternatives available to consumers through green technology.

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Craters & Freighters

Craters & Freighters, the industry leader in the specialty packaging, crating, and shipping industry, has committed to green initiatives in daily practices. Traditionally, the freight shipping industry is not considered environmentally friendly. However, Craters & Freighters is doing its part to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

The company’s warehouse operations reuse wooden crates, corrugated boxes, and foam cushioning whenever possible. Scrap wood and foam are saved and used for future crates and miscellaneous cushioning. A wood crate refurbishing service is now in place. This service offers clients more options than simply throwing away crates that can easily be repaired by Craters & Freighters for reuse. In addition to green warehouse practices, the office staff recycles all office paper, plastics, cans, and toner cartridges, and even carpools to work.

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Ernst & Young

Ernst & Young has committed to U.S. GREEN BUILDING COUNCIL LEED ratings for construction projects. Not only has Ernst & Young's new office on New York Avenue in Washington, DC, achieved a LEED-CI (commercial interiors) rating, but a number of other E&Y buildings and office spaces are ENERGY STAR-rated. More than 80 percent of E&Y offices and facilities have implemented timed night and weekend HVAC, and motion-sensor lighting exists in nearly one-third of the company's facilities. Recycling is also a major initiative of E&Y. Toner cartridges, ink jet cartridges, paper and other office supplies are recycled in large percentages, and when carpeting and office equipment cannot be reused or donated, these items are also recycled.

To learn more about the greening of Ernst & Young, click here.

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George Mason University

George Mason University has undertaken the following green initiatives:

  • Signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment in summer 2007.
  • Begun its greenhouse gas inventory, which will form the basis for a climate action plan to reduce our emissions.
  • Committed to all new buildings on its campuses being built to the U.S. Green Building Council LEED Silver standard and is incorporating green building principles into its building style manual.
  • Provides a number of public transportation benefits (free local bus service to entire campus community, public transportation credits for commuting staff and faculty) and is installing more than 70 new bicycle racks around campus.
  • Working to reduce its energy and water consumption through energy service company contracts and retrofits.
  • Developing green purchasing policies. The policies are expected to be released in spring 2008.
  • Developing a landscaping master plan that gives preference to native plant species.
  • Developed sustainability internship and grants program this year to encourage study in various sustainability topics.
  • Undertaking multiple green research projects that partner faculty and their students.
  • Replacing surface parking lots with garages to prevent increases in impermeable landscape.
  • Forming new Center of Excellence in Climate Change Communications Research.
  • Created sustainability management structure to manage long-term strategic planning and includes the entire university community in sustainability decision making.
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GlobalLogic

GlobalLogic is creating a green taskforce charged with calculating its global carbon footprint and developing a concrete plan for being carbon positive within five years—with the hope that the company reaches this goal sooner.

In 2007, GlobalLogic took steps to reduce its emissions by embracing lower energy sources and sponsored tree plantings in India.

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Gsecurity

Gsecurity is aware that its actions have an impact on the world and the company has taken the following steps to be greener in our corporate environment:

  • Gsecurity opened a second office in Rockville that is closer to where many staff live, therefore reducing overall miles driven to and from work.
  • The company strongly support teleworking. Company documents are shared electronically (and securely) so that they are available to staff remotely (e.g., from home) and conference calls are used in place of face-to-face meetings, whenever possible.
  • Updated, energy-efficient hardware are used to support web site and company e-mail services.
  • Gsecurity keeps the thermostat in its offices low (67 degrees).
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Kodiak Finance

Kodiak Finance, a woman- and minority-owned company, helps government, systems integrators and commercial organizations to:

  • Buy or lease environmentally friendly computers
  • Dispose of electronics - secure, economic and environmental recycling or destruction of IT assets
  • Comply with Executive Order 13423
The company also provides green data center audits, policies and best practices and asset management and inventory services to its members.

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Micron Technology

Micron Technology has been, and continues to be, very active in adopting environmentally friendly programs both operationally and in the community:

  • Micron Technology's Virginia site (MTV) has organized several semi-annual "Adopt-A-Stream" events to clean up two local streams in its community. MTV has worked to remove more than 3,000 lbs. of trash from both streams.
  • MTV has teamed with local schools to develop a learning lesson to teach children about the environment, such as aquifers, point vs. non-point source pollution, the natural water cycle and the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.
  • In spring 2008, MTV is sponsoring a Water Festival to be held at Prince William County's Marsteller Middle School, which will focus on water conservation, reuse and awareness.
  • From 2005 - 2007, MTV sent more than 5.7 tons of scrap silicon that has been reused to manufacture solar energy panels and components.
  • From 2006 to 2007, MTV increased its recycle rate by 9 percent. Aggressive goals are in place to increase its recycle rate to 47 percent by including not only traditionally recycled products, but materials that are reused rather than disposed of as wastes.
  • MTV has reused more than 1,021 million gallons of water from 2005 to 2007 and has been able to increase its average reuse rate by 8 percent in the past year.
  • With its energy saving efforts, Micron has saved more than 17 million kilowatt hours during the past five years. In 2008, MTV has additional plans in place to save another 15 million kilowatt hours at a cost savings of more $800,000.
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Noblis

As part of its corporate social responsibility, Noblis initiated an internal project ("Operation Green") to calculate its carbon footprint. At the onset of the project, it was decided to develop a Web-based tool for enterprise systems that was scaleable and possessed analytical capability to allow its CEO the ability to analyze corporate policies and see their affect on carbon emissions. During the development of this application, Noblis realized that other like-minded organizations and the federal government were hungry for innovative approaches to calculate their carbon emissions, set reduction goals and achieve their green goals. As a result of that interest, Noblis has decided to share the story of its greenhouse gases enterprise model and assist others in achieving their green goals.

The Noblis GHG enterprise model is based on the World Resources Institute Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard and complies with the International Standards Organization ISO 14064-1 Greenhouse Gases - Part 1: Specification with guidance at the organization level for quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and removals. Noblis also considered the Executive Order (EO) 13423 Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy and Transportation Management and believes its model can assist federal government organizations subject to the EO.

The Noblis GHG enterprise model is an easy-to-use application that provides a step-by-step methodology for calculating an organization's GHG emissions on an enterprise level. The system has several components that range from collecting and organizing data, to building a GHG inventory, to calculating return on investment, and a carbon profile mapping feature.

The model provides at-a-glance real time visualization of key metrics, allowing business owners to view the effects of changing corporate practices or standards such as telecommuting, core work hours, and other energy related business decisions in real time. The model also incorporates features such as a "slider" where business owners can change the value of a parameter and immediately see the effect on emissions. For example, if telecommuting is increased from the baseline by 10 percent, 20 percent, 30 percent, etc. the effect on reducing GHG emissions will be displayed real time.

The application also includes a report generator that produces a GHG report that is compliant with the WRI Greenhouse Gas Protocol and ISO 14064-1.

For additional information, feel free to contact Bob Wassmann at (703) 610-1744 or rwassman@noblis.org.

To view a PDF of a presentation on Noblis' Operation Green, click here.

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Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman has multiple environmental initiatives. Here are a few highlights:

  • Northrop Grumman participates in the "Demand/Response" programs with local utilities, lowering its demand in manufacturing and office facilities to reduce energy use during peak consumption hours.
  • The company has begun construction of an U.S. Green Building Council LEED-certified facility in its Chantilly campus.
  • Northrop Grumman has 14 major ISO 14001-certified Environmental Management Systems locations, including its Newport News shipyard, which implemented the program in 2003.
  • Northrop Grumman is implementing green data centers. To make its data centers more efficient and move toward being green, the company has implemented some key technologies unique to the company. A building block design approach to fill the data centers with computer equipment was created-a Northrop Grumman computing POD. A POD is a set of seven racks of computer equipment in a specific layout to ensure consistency in heat, weight, and energy loads. This set-up allows traditional cooling to be optimized based on thermal dynamics. The company has also deployed virtual machines, which has a minimal increase in energy utilization. The goal of this technology is to incur minimal increases in electrical power loads. Northrop Grumman also has a design approach that reduces the power used by servers with hard drives and optimizes the hard drive power consumption.
  • Northrop Grumman's National Work Force Center initiative is a new program to provide high-quality, cost effective technology centers within the United States as an alternative to off shoring. As part of this initiative, the company has established work force centers in identified locations throughout the United States. One of the company's goals with this initiative is to improve quality of life for new employees by encouraging teleworking and short commuting distances in these regions. The teleworking and short commuting distances will cut down on emissions overall.
  • As the company replaces laptops and desktops, appropriate EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) registered products are purchased.
  • Northrop Grumman is using virtual world technologies, which can reduce travel-related energy consumption, to enable its internal processes and to support its customers' missions.
  • Northrop Grumman's corporate environmental health and safety office is actively involved in ensuring that recycling programs, energy conservation and appropriate human resources programs (flexible time / remote work) are instituted.
  • The company enables the climate change monitoring mission of its customers, providing satellites, ground station support and computing models.
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Panacea Consulting

Panacea Consulting, according to a recent Washington Business Journal article, "now has a minimal carbon footprint." The company has implemented a virtual office, which benefits the environment by eliminating associates' commutes and the "heat generated and power consumed by our offices, and the waste generated by previous paper-dependent operations," says Gary Pan, President & CEO. Its employees also are has happier and more productive working in this virtual office environment, according to Pan.

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Power Loft

Power Loft is constructing a new 220,000-square-foot data storage center in Manassas that will be very energy efficient, saving the company an estimated $9 million in energy costs per year, according to a recent article in the Washington Business Journal. These energy savings will be passed onto customers. The center " ... will be walled by four greenery-entwined metal screens and covered by a shrub-filled roof to catch overflow rainfall.

Inside, energy efficiency will inform every aspect of the nearly $200 million building's design, including the placement of warmer-running mechanical equipment on a separate level below the more cool-running computer servers."

"We can handle three times the computing power using half the land and a lot less [electrical] power," said Jim Coakley, Power Loft President.

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Stewart Strategies Group, LLC

Stewart Strategies Group, LLC has been engaged as a strategic advisor to organizations operating in the environmental technology and green space since the early 1990's and more recently has expanded its consulting services to include developing leadership positioning programs and managing issues for organizations that desire to maximize their business return on social responsibility, green marketing and sustainable business practices.

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Turtle Wings TM

Turtle WingsTM is "committed to making the world a better place" by facilitating the reuse and recycling of electronics. The company recently merged with another NVTC member company, PC Recycler. Turtle Wings offers a number of recycling and data destruction services to both government agencies and corporate businesses, including the de-installation of large electronics, pickup and removal of unwanted electronics, recycling and data destruction certification. The company also provides excess reusable inventory programs, product recall services and one-time or ongoing collection events for businesses or neighborhoods.

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Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts

Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts is positioning itself "as an environmental model and resource for artists and arts presenters," says Terrence Jones, President & CEO. The ultimate goal for the facility is to become a "paperless, zero-waste operation," with plans for using alternative fuels and efficient vehicles, as well as "the purchase of wind credits to offset carbon emissions at the Center for Education," according to Jones.

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