Green Telecom, Part VIII: Qwest pioneers annual reporting

Qwest is in the early phases of establishing long-term objectives but has launched multiple initiatives to begin reducing energy consumption and recycling more responsibly, Lingk said. “We are working on the process to track what we are saving year over year.”

Among the initiatives already launched are:

• “From a building standpoint, our real-estate organization is actually looking at our electricity consumption on a building-by-building basis, to understand how much electricity is being used by equipment, by maintaining systems and by employees,” Lingk said. “We are then targeting reductions, particularly on the people side, by turning off lights and faxes.” As new buildings are built or acquired, Qwest is also using technology such as motion-detecting lights to reduce power consumption.
  · Qwest heavily promotes a “Pay It Green” initiative to encourage customers to pay their bills electronically and eliminate paper billing. “For customers that sign up, we actually give 1% of their total bill to the K-12 school of their choice within our 14-state local service region,” Lingk said.
• Qwest is looking at software that will automatically power down PCs at night and also working with its IT department on the best approach to doing this, given the fact that software sometimes is pushed out across the corporate network during the late-night hours, Seguin said.
• A cellphone recycling program is being implemented. “When customers want to switch out handsets, they can pick up a prepaid envelope, drop the old phone in the mail, and it goes to a vendor for recycling, and the proceeds go to K-12 schools, also,” Lingk said.
• On the equipment side, Qwest is working with ATIS and its equipment vendors to look at best management practices for energy efficiencies in the networks and in data centers and also to set specific standards for reducing electrical consumption, Seguin said.
• Qwest’s Human Resources department is looking at options, in major cities where the company has employees, to survey employees regarding their commuting habits and then work with local transit authorities to see how Qwest employees can better use public transportation, Lingk said.
• Qwest employees contributed more than 800 suggestions on an internal “going green” Web page, Seguin said. “I am looking at those to see if we can implement them – some are doable, some are far-fetched. But that employee engagement is actually a key for us down the road.”

Previously: Part One of this series looks at AT&T’s green initiatives, while Part Two reports Callis Communications’ effort to reduce power used by VoIP gear. Part Three reports on iControl’s efforts to help service providers leverage home security system sales to also promote home automation and energy savings. Part Four explores new technology from Telco Systems to use solar power for data centers. Part Five looks at how Emerson Network Power is taking a comprehensive approach to reducing power consumption by its wireline and wireless customers. Part Six examines Verizon Business’ efforts to help its enterprise customers cut their energy consumption. Part Seven looked at Verizon’s internal efforts to build a greener network.