LED Lighting Will Be Big As Companies Go Green


Going green has many meanings at Cisco Systems.

It means monitoring energy use at 600 buildings across the globe to reduce a $130 million electric bill. It means locating data centers where power is not just cheap and plentiful, but where it comes from less-polluting sources.

And it means looking ahead to new technologies, such as LED lighting, which is destine to be big and smart enough to adjust to daylight conditions and instruct nearby lights to follow suit.

“Our customers and partners are demanding we be a green company,” Cisco’s Senior Manager of Workplace Resources John Hailey said Thursday evening at an SDForum Green & Clean event in Menlo Park. That’s why “we are now re-evaluating how we locate data centers and labs (looking) as to whether it is clean or dirty energy.”

While many companies justify environmental projects based on their expected cost savings, others have begun to look at a broader calculation. Customers, partners and suppliers now expect carbon reduction to be part of a company’s DNA – as can be seen in Cisco’s effort to seek cleaner power sources.
While the growing desire to be a good corporate citizen is nothing new, what was interesting was its emphasis at last night’s forum. With the Bush Administration a thing of the part, companies appear to be genuinely taking green to heart.

In other word’s, Cisco isn’t alone. At Hewlett-Packard, the company installed SunPower solar panels on six San Diego buildings last year. The benefits include an estimated $750,000 in savings over 15 years. But the company now realizes they go beyond that.

Customers want to see green data centers at their partners, notes Anne Marie Feldhusen, a marketing manager for the company’s green business initiative. The benefit is less tangible, but nonetheless important.

There will still need to be prodding, says Matthew Denesuk, a partner at IBM’s venture capital group, which is why large-scale environmental improvements will require government regulations.

But smart companies, it appears, are thinking a step ahead – to a time when green is not just good for business but necessary for business.

Because altruism will take a while to go mainstream, and because cost savings will motivate many projects even after, IBM’s venture capital group is seeking technologies that integrate with existing ERP systems and other widely used software, says Denesuk. A separate focus is on products tailored to an industry vertical, he says.

Products need to be flexible so they can respond to changing regulations and company initiatives, he says.