Blue Coat Systems, which supplies WAN optimization and Secure Web Gateway products, has occupied its new corporate headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. The new facility is are designed to minimize its environmental impact through reduction in electricity and water consumption, increased recycling and reduction of waste. The new facility is an integral element of the company's "Blue Planet" initiative intended to reduce the company's environmental impact, save operational costs and educate employees to decrease their own carbon-footprints.
"Blue Coat is committed to being a good steward of the environment in all aspects of business through the lessening of our carbon footprint and reduction of resources we consume," said Brian NeSmith, president and chief executive officer, Blue Coat Systems. "Blue Planet is our corporate initiative for a greener company, and is intended to help our employees, partners and even customers become more environmentally responsible. It's the right thing to do for our planet and it provides us considerable operational savings in the process."
Besides the new environmentally-friendly headquarters, Blue Planet programs encompass:
- Significant changes to its IT systems to reduce power consumption from servers and other resources
- Design for environment engineering and development efforts to create more energy-efficient products that are recyclable and environmentally-friendly; Blue Coat products are already RoHS compliant and meet the other environmental requirements of international jurisdictions
- Travel-reduction programs coupled with new video conferencing systems and other virtual meeting enablers
- Employee education, contests and best practices collaboration
- Worldwide product fulfillment streamlining for carbon reduction and cost reduction
- Use of Blue Coat's own ProxyClient software to enable employees to work safely and efficiently from home or remote locations
- Blue Coat expects its Blue Planet initiative to reduce operational costs by at least $4 million and at least 4,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the next 12-18 months.
