IBM Research and Global Real Estate Site Operations receive the 2006 Chairman's Environmental Award

26 Apr 2007 -- IBM Chairman Samuel J. Palmisano has announced that both IBM's Research and Global Real Estate Site Operations (RESO) organizations will receive the 2006 Chairman's Environmental Award. The award for 2006 focused on energy conservation and energy efficiency across IBM's operations, products and services.

Research developed a wide range of innovations for product energy efficiency, collaborated with clients to provide solutions that optimize their operations and processes to increase energy efficiency, and demonstrated laudable energy conservation in its own operations. Some of the highlights of their leadership in these areas include:

• Leading edge research and collaboration with IBM's Systems and Technology Group to develop more energy efficient processors and systems (e.g., VLSI circuit design, design automation tools and power-aware microarchitecture, PowerExecutive, EMPATH, and Blue Gene/L)
• Sponsorship of the Austin Energy Efficiency Institute focusing on IBM's low power initiatives at the component and systems level
• Development of combined workload/power management tools and a data center thermal profiling device that increase the energy efficiency of data centers
• Leveraging multiple disciplines and areas of expertise in collaboration with Global Business Services and Global Technology Services to provide energy efficiency and competitive advantage in client's product, production and business processes
• Strong internal energy conservation programs that exceeded IBM's 4% energy goal for the three years covered by the nomination

RESO achieved excellent results in energy conservation and cost reduction, was instrumental in IBM's procurement of renewable energy, and also used their experience to provide clients energy management solutions. Some of the highlights of their leadership in these areas include:

• Exceeded IBM's voluntary 4% energy goal as a result of its energy conservation projects, which also avoided an average of 174,000 tons of CO2 emissions and saved IBM $12.8 million per year during the three years covered by the nomination
• Implemented an innovative initiative called Electrical Energy Monitoring System for the detailed monitoring of energy consumption at 20 IBM sites in North America that reduced energy use by approximately 20,000 MWH and saved the company $1.4 million
• Proactively expanded the use of renewable energy from 2.5% of IBM's global energy use in 2004 to approximately 6% in 2006, which contributed to significant external recognition for IBM
• Driving the implementation of employee commutation programs at IBM locations across the U.S. which reduced CO2 emissions and enabled IBM to be named among the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Top 20 Best Workplaces for Commuters^SM from the FORTUNE 500 Companies for the past three years
• Provided energy expertise in collaboration with Global Business Services to help improve the energy efficiency of client operations

IBM established this recognition program in 1991 to encourage leadership and recognize achievement and progress in environmental affairs on the part of IBM's organizations. Recipients were selected based on their degree of leadership, results, innovation and integration with regard to their programs and initiatives in the areas of energy conservation and energy efficiency. Performance against these criteria was evaluated against each nominee's opportunity to contribute given its mission and operations. The company is proud of the outstanding contributions all the nominees have made toward IBM's energy conservation and energy efficiency objectives.

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