sustainability

As part of our Earth Day celebration, we’re launching Responsibility.Rackspace.com. We want to highlight the “prosperity with purpose” created by our business model of Fanatical Support, which reflects our holistic approach and belief that business, people and the environment are inextricably linked.

We’re committed to supporting our local community. At Rackspace, it’s one of our key initiatives. That’s why we were thrilled last month to host the City of Austin’s Green Business Leaders Program here at the Rackspace Austin office.

This week Rackspace was ranked No. 16 on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) “Top 20 Tech & Telecom” list of “Green Power Partners” thanks to our purchase of renewable energy in 2012. (In 2011, we purchased 25 percent renewable energy worldwide and in 2012 we increased that amount to 30 percent.)

Most things in life require energy. From the refrigerator and the microwave to the iPhone and the iPad; nearly everything we touch uses some form of embedded energy. Cloud computing is no different, except in one crucial respect: it’s the most efficient — and energy-efficient — form of computing yet invented.

The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce has recognized the Rackspace Austin office for excellence in the “Environment” category of the 2012 Greater Austin Business Awards.   We received the award, which was presented Thursday, August 30, for encouraging green behavior in the workplace and demonstrating commitment to environmental responsibility benefitting Rackers and the community.

Living, as I do, in the middle of a country famed for its wilderness and clean green environment, I’ve always had an interest in environmental issues. Working within an industry that is one of the single biggest consumers of energy has made me interested in learning how that consumption can be made more efficient. And being a big geek and former electrician, I’ve always been interested in the technology that powers our everyday use of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.