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Sustainability Story Will Be Written By Technologists

November 18, 2008 by Mighty Casey Leave a Comment

The Greater Richmond Technology Council’s Sustainability Summit on Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008 led a series of conversations about a variety of sustainability/green topics, from carbon footprint and energy resource management to implementing and best practices for ‘going green’. The discussions, led by business technology experts, touched on IT issues, but were really driven by the recognition that sustainability is a business responsibility enabled by technology.

In all of those conversations, panelists made similar points:
    -Sustainability programs are becoming a business imperative, and not just for PR reasons
    -Sustainability initiatives can deliver operational efficiencies with clear bottom-line value
    -Getting buy-in across the enterprise is the first step to meaningful sustainability efforts
    -Technology/IT has become a leading force in enterprise sustainability programs

In his opening remarks to the Summit, Gov. Tim Kaine said that 25% of all development in Virginia has happened in the last 30 years. The state is losing 60,000 acres of open space every year, putting pressure on one of the state’s leading economic sectors: agriculture. These facts make it imperative to develop a statewide environmental policy, which is under development. The Commonwealth has developed an energy plan, with buy-in increased due to rising energy costs. "Low cost doesn’t encourage conservation," said Gov. Kaine, noting that 2009 has been designated as the "eco-year" for his administration.

Gov. Kaine is pressing the Southern Governors’ Association, whose members include 16 southern states, to adopt a regional climate change accord, matching efforts by other regional governors’ associations. This would help to address the concerns of two major industries in the Commonwealth, agriculture and forestry, both of which are highly vulnerable to climate change.

The Summit’s panel discussion "How Big Is Your Carbon Footprint?" explored the importance of determining an enterprise’s carbon impact – the first step in developing a sustainability plan. "Green" calculations have become a regular feature of RFPs, making meaningful data collection and carbon output management a requirement for ongoing business development. The economic landscape dictates change in how business approaches sustainability, which technology & IT can help drive as a central part of 21st century enterprise.

The Carbon Footprint discussion was led by Guy Chapman, Managing Director of Dominion Resources, with input from:
    -Steve Cole, Program Strategy Director, IBM Energy & Environment, IBM: discovering an enterprise’s carbon footprint, and then working to reduce it, can create a competitive advantage in addition to environmental benefit.
    -David Lobato, Laserjet Business Sustainability & Environmental Programs Manager for the Imaging & Printing Group, Hewlett-Packard: as simple a step as duplex printing, rather than single sheet, can save as much as 800 tons of carbon emissions annually for a mid-sized company.
    -Dennis Tracz, Director, James Madison University Center for Entrepreneurship: sustainability has become a new study discipline at the JMU School of Engineering, whose graduates will bring new ideas and new business opportunities to the marketplace.
    -Kevin Xiao, a senior at Maggie L. Walker Governors School: Xiao created a carbon emissions calculator that allows individuals to determine the carbon impact of their homes, schools, and workplaces, which helps create awareness and spur positive action to reduce emissions.

The second Summit panel discussion, "Implementing & Best Practices for Going Green", looked at specific ways that companies are approaching sustainability initiatives. Led by Jeff Ziegler, President & CEO, TechTurn, the panel gave real-world examples of their company’s sustainability efforts and results:
    -Kevin Gerber, President & CEO, Packet360: sustainability is an enterprise-wide practice. Intelligent data centers sense load decreases, helping decrease power consumption by consolidating virtual machines and enabling them to power off large parts of the data center in off-hours.
    -Mike Magruder, Data Center Support Specialist, Federal Reserve Information Technology: consolidation and virtualization are where FRIT has seen the biggest impact, and has driven 80% of the cost savings delivered by green initiatives. What started as a power cost-savings effort helped FRIT realize how big their carbon impact was, driving ongoing efforts at reduction.
    -Jim McGlone, VP Sales, Tridium: automated systems that enable communication and power conservation across all platforms of an enterprise can deliver a daunting amount of data, making both monitoring and management a challenge. However, that level of awareness can help get a 20% reduction in resource usage, in addition to the value derived from process automation.
    -Jean Peters, Senior VP Strategic Analysis & Planning, Genworth: what started as a voluntary effort, led by an ad hoc committee, has become a complex journey to finding the business value in sustainability. The company has seen a big reduction in power consumption annually (900,000 kilowatts), and has fostered a company-wide culture shift that embraces ongoing carbon reduction efforts.

The third panel, "Energy – Conservation vs. Reliability", discussed how rising demand for IT has added to the drive for energy efficiency. Jeff Zeigler of TechTurn led this conversation, with input from experts in power distribution equipment and data management:
    -Dave Rubcich, Director of Sales, Emerson Network Power/Liebert: demand for IT has driven development of power management for running and cooling data centers. Centralization trends have increased demand for ways to control the impact of managing large amounts of data.
    -Dennis Tolliver, ISS/Blade Specialist, Hewlett-Packard: deploying Blade servers can help a company shave 30% off the power costs of their data center. Virtualization and software management allows flexible IT asset usage and reduction of physical asset inventory.
    -Mark Wensell, VP & GM, Peak 10: data centers have been accused of increasing carbon emissions, but the reality is that aggregating data operations reduces carbon emissions by creating efficiencies, while controlling the data environment, security, and liability.

George Favolaro, Managing Partner, Esty Environmental Partners, gave the Summit keynote address. Favolaro noted that sustainability has become a hot-button issue, particularly for business. Asking the question "why green business?" leads to discoveries in the impact of energy prices, energy security, regulation, and climate change on both a company and its customers. Examining that impact brings process change and efficiencies, product development, revenue savings, reputation enhancement, and brand loyalty.

Managing the entire supply chain is critical, creating a cycle of leadership from suppliers through operations to planning. In the work Esty Environmental Partners does with companies such as American Eagle outfitters, Hanes Brands, Nestle Waters, Dow, and TechTurn, Favolaro has seen how doing something as basic as standardizing the boxes that products are shipped in can have a significant impact on reducing a company’s carbon footprint.

The common themes repeated in every conversation at the Summit – that "green" is becoming a business imperative, that sustainability programs can drive operational efficiencies and revenue savings, that culture change is critical to putting a "green" initiative in place, that technology is helping business create meaningful reductions in carbon emissions – indicate that sustainability has become a core issue for 21st century business. As IT has merged into all aspects of enterprise, it has become a driver of both the power of business data, and the importance of environmentally responsible business practice.

Filed Under: Business, Storytelling Tagged With: green IT, richtech, sustainability, technology, virginia

SnagAJob.com – Helping People Find the Right Jobs & Companies Find the Right People

August 6, 2007 by Mighty Casey Leave a Comment

This is the text from a press release the Greater Richmond Technology Council sent out today about their monthly breakfast this coming Friday – if you’re in the Richmond area, come hear what Shawn Boyer and Wei Wang have to say.

Richmond, VA. Aug. 6, 2007 – Eight
years ago, a friend asked Shawn Boyer, then a transactional attorney at Brown
& Wood LLP, to help him look for a summer internship online. When Boyer found very few sites listing
available internships, and almost no sites offering part-time or full-time
hourly jobs, he had the “a-ha” moment that led to founding SnagAJob.com, the
on-line hourly job board that now has more than 7 million registered
users. Mr. Boyer will tell the
SnagAJob.com story, and talk about the online recruiting industry, at the
Greater Richmond Technology Council (GRTC) Good Morning Technology breakfast on
Friday, August 10, 2007 at
The Place at Innsbrook. The breakfast
will start at 7:30am and end at 9:00am.

Mr. Boyer,
SnagAJob.com’s President & CEO, will give an overview of the company’s
services, as well as a history of online recruiting. SnagAJob.com is now the nation’s largest
hourly-wage job board, and in addition to racking up close to triple-digit
growth every year since 2000, the company has become the recruitment tool of
choice for a wide array of businesses, including Jiffy Lube and 7-Eleven.

Testimonials
from customers like Veronica Thomas, regional recruiter at Jiffy Lube, saying,
“We use SnagAJob.com because it works. It has proven to boost our applicant
flow by 50 percent. The customer service is in a class of its own,” are an
indication of why the company is successful. Customer service, ease of use, and quality of candidates make employers
happy customers – and those seeking work are equally complimentary about their
experiences with SnagAJob.com. One
job-seeker quoted on the company’s website is Miya E., who says that
SnagAJob.com is “the No. 1 source for hourly employment (and a
friend to the hourly worker).”

SnagAJob.com’s
Chief Technology Officer, Wei Wang, will join Mr. Boyer in addressing the GRTC
membership. Mr. Wang, who holds a
Masters in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science from MIT, will talk
about the IT infrastructure initiatives the company has undertaken to manage
its success and rapid growth. Mr. Wang
recognizes the human side of SnagAJob.com’s business, “I
believe that people are our best asset, and my duty is to create a scalable
organization to maximize everyone’s potential and to allow each person to live
a more fulfilling life.” That sentiment
is echoed by each member of the company’s leadership team who, along with their
impressive array of degrees and business experience, list their first
hourly-wage jobs in their bios on the SnagAJob.com website.

The August GRTC
Good Morning Technology breakfast is sponsored by Monument Consulting, a
Richmond-based firm that delivers flexible and cost-effective recruiting
models, including recruiting process outsourcing. Monument Consulting helps its customers
recruit the great talent that is crucial to their business success.

The
Greater Richmond Technology Council is an association of businesses and
organizations working together to promote the success of technology companies,
and the growth of the technology sector of the Central Virginia economy.

Filed Under: Business, Entrepreneurs, PR, Storytelling Tagged With: Business, employment, jobs, richtech, Shawn Boyer, SnagAJob.com, Storytelling, web

How Technology Is Revolutionizing the Trucking Industry – GetLoaded.com

July 20, 2007 by Mighty Casey Leave a Comment

Here’s an example of what I mean when I say “tell a story” – this is a press release I wrote last week in advance of an event that took place this morning.  Please notice that at no time during this release is anyone “pleased to announce” anything– that phrase literally makes me grind my teeth.

Richmond, VA –- July 12, 2007 – Truckers, those sailors of the concrete and asphalt seas, are at the hub of American commerce, carrying everything – groceries and clothing, plasma TVs and medical supplies – from manufacturers and distributors to consumers across the nation. The margins in the trucking industry are razor-thin, with time between loads and fuel costs often eating into already small profits. The daily challenge for trucking companies is matching freight loads with trucks nearby, cutting down-time and empty-truck runs. In 1999,  GetLoaded.com opened its web portal as a truck and load-matching board, using the internet to revolutionize business process management for the transportation and logistics industry.

Bryan Jones, President of GetLoaded.com, will tell the Greater Richmond Technology Council (GRTC) how the company has combined the internet with a cutting edge computer platform and a user–friendly interface to revolutionize the trucking and freight industry. Mr. Jones will be the featured speaker at the monthly GRTC Good Morning Technology! Breakfast at The Place at Innsbrook in Glen Allen, Virginia on Friday, July 20, 2007, 7:30am to 9:00am.

As the leading internet load board, Getloaded.com handles over 140,000 loads a day for 27,000 trucking companies with upwards of 500,000 trucks. Managing and growing that volume of business, and providing value to all their customers, tech-savvy or not, has been GetLoaded.com’s goal since the company was started.

“We designed the site to be simple, fast, and easy to use, knowing that there is a wide range of comfort with technology in our industry,” says Jones. “Overall, the trucking industry is far more technology savvy than most people realize.” Truckers who have used GetLoaded.com to accelerate their own success include Chris Doran of LTD Trucking, who credits his relationship with GetLoaded.com as the reason his company grew from five trucks to thirty in six months.

The GRTC’s July breakfast is sponsored by Peak 10 Data Center Solutions. Peak 10 Richmond specializes in managed hosting services for businesses with complex needs and mission critical operations. Its world-class Richmond data center is staffed by skilled engineers and support personnel to ensure the security, integrity and availability of its customers’ technology infrastructure 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The Greater Richmond Technology Council is an association of businesses and organizations working together to promote the success of technology companies, and the growth of the technology sector of the Central Virginia economy.

Filed Under: Business, Entrepreneurs, PR, Storytelling Tagged With: GetLoaded.com, logistics, richtech, technology, trucking, web

Virginia TeleWork Initiative Offers Solutions to Traffic Jams, Workforce Issues and Economic Development

December 15, 2006 by Mighty Casey Leave a Comment

Richmond, VA – Dec. 15, 2006 – Imagine being able to hire the best employees for your company, and not caring where they live.

Karen Jackson, Director of the Virginia Office of Telework Promotion and Broadband assistance, asked the central Virginia technology sector to picture that scenario as she spoke to the Greater Richmond Technology Council at its monthly breakfast on Dec. 14.

Ms. Jackson, who heads up the new Commonwealth initiative created by Gov. Tim Kaine at the Commonwealth of Virginia Innovative Technology Symposium (COVITS) in September 2006, is tasked with addressing workforce, transportation and economic development issues in the Commonwealth by leveraging and expanding Virginia’s broadband infrastructure.

Identified as a key success factor in the Virginia economy, state-wide broadband connectivity will allow businesses across the state equal access to highly skilled workers and reduce traffic congestion. Broadband access will also spur economic development, particularly in areas hard-hit by the decline in Virginia’s manufacturing sector.

During her presentation, Ms. Jackson illustrated the power of broadband in economic development with this example: in Galax, a southwest Virginia community with high unemployment after the closing of several furniture manufacturing plants, access to broadband allowed Galax residents to learn clinical coding, giving them opportunities to telework, coding medical diagnoses for clinical studies, medical insurers and medical billing. These jobs paid up to $30,000 per year, a significant increase over jobs available in local businesses.

The Commonwealth has asked that companies state-wide sign a telework pledge in support of the goal of having 20% of Virginia’s workforce teleworking by 2010. The state has committed to that goal, which will mean that 19,000 of its 95,000 workforce will telecommute by 2009, one year ahead of the deadline for private enterprise.

In addition to the economic benefits brought by broadband access and telework opportunities, particularly in rural areas, the telework program also addresses traffic congestion in the  Commonwealth, which is legendary in northern Virginia and Tidewater, and the demand for work/life balance that is frequently the deciding factor for highly-skilled knowledge workers when choosing where to market their skills.

The goals of Gov. Tim Kaine and Secy. of Technology Aneesh Chopra in expanding broadband access and telework reflect the legislative agenda of the GRTC, which calls on the Legislature to encourage the use of telework as a strategy in the Commonwealth’s efforts to increase the potential employment pool, reduce traffic congestion, enhance disaster recovery/continuation of operations plans, avoid productivity loss from inclement weather days, and improve employee satisfaction levels.

The GRTC’s December breakfast was sponsored by the Center for Innovative Technology (CIT). CIT is a nonprofit corporation that accelerates the next generation of technology and technology companies, creating new technology companies through capital formation, market development and revenue generation services. To facilitate national innovation leadership and accelerate the rate of technology adoption, CIT creates partnerships between innovative technology start-up companies and advanced technology consumers.

The Greater Richmond Technology Council is an association of businesses and organizations working together to promote the success of technology companies, and the growth of the technology sector of the central Virginia economy.

Filed Under: Business, PR, Storytelling, Women in Business Tagged With: richtech, telework, virginia

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