Rackspace UK Achieves ISO 14001 Environmental Management Certification
London,UK - 06 September 2012 - Rackspace® Hosting (NYSE: RAX), the open cloud company, has achieved certification to the ISO 14001:2004 Environmental Management standard. The certification is based upon an external validation of the company's environmental performance with regard to the design, implementation and support of hosting solutions in its UK data centre and office operations.
ISO 14001 certification among cloud data centre providers is still comparatively rare and Rackspace continues to be environmentally proactive in improving its operations. Adherence to the voluntary 14000 or 14001 standards is evidence of Rackspace's efforts to both improve and formally systemise the company's environmental management efforts.
"We work in an industry with its own particular energy challenges and as the world increasingly turns to hosted cloud solutions to meet its computing requirements, we have a heightened responsibility to ensure our solutions are architected, built and maintained in an environmentally responsible manner from the start," said Paul Smith, Rackspace Compliance Programme Manager, "Achieving this standard helps to underpin our Global Sustainability Programme and focus the business on achieving our targets and objectives, not just in terms of energy but wherever we have an environmental impact."
"We're always looking for ever more creative ways of reducing our environmental footprint in pursuit of providing the greatest customer service - and that goes all the way from the small day-to-day things like buying recycled stationary, through to plans to allow our customers to reward environmentally sound good causes when they buy and start experiencing our Fanatical Support," he added.
As a result of implementing this programme, Rackspace completed an inventory of all emission sources and has now been able to reduce its carbon emissions by procuring 25% renewable energy worldwide.
"Achieving this standard helps to demonstrate how environmentally conscious we are," said Tiffany Lathe, Rackspace Vice President Legal International and Executive Sponsor of the Rackspace programme - "Besides renewable energy, this commitment also includes Rack Gives Back, a volunteering programme dedicated to re-investing effort back into the wider community, which has recently been helping to clear the water and towpath of the Grand Union Canal in London - as well as working with partners and suppliers to reduce waste," she added.
Certification to the ISO 14001 standard requires companies to identify and control the environmental impacts of their activities, products and services. ISO 14001 also requires companies to continually improve their environmental performance and implement a systematic approach to setting and achieving environmental targets and objective.
ENDS
About Rackspace Hosting
Rackspace® (NYSE: RAX) is the open cloud company and founder of OpenStack, the standard open-source operating system for cloud computing. Headquartered in San Antonio, Rackspace delivers its renowned Fanatical Support® to more than 200,000 business customers, from data centers on four continents. Rackspace is a leading provider of hybrid clouds, which enable businesses to run their workloads where they run most effectively — whether on the public cloud, a private cloud, dedicated servers, or a combination of these platforms. Rackspace has been recognized by Bloomberg BusinessWeek as a Top 100 Performing Technology Company, and is featured on Fortune’s list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. For more information, visit www.rackspace.co.uk.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of Rackspace Hosting could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including any statements concerning expected development, performance or market acceptance associated with the Rackspace’s hybrid cloud solutions, federated cloud services or other associated products and services; anticipated operational and financial benefits from Rackspace’s hybrid cloud solutions, federated cloud services or other associated products and services; any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include including the possibility that expected benefits from the Rackspace cloud network program or the products and services offered through the Rackspace cloud network program may not materialize because the products or services are not generally accepted in the marketplace, which could occur due to certain factors including (i) a failure to market the products or services cost effectively, differentiate the products and services from competitive products and services or communicate differentiations effectively, (ii) the reliability, quality or compatibility associated with the products or services, (iii) changes in technology which adversely affect the benefits of the product, (iv) slowdowns in the general economy or technology industry that impact consumer spending habits, (v) internal strategy decisions that impact the platform, products and services, and (vi) and other risks that are described in Rackspace Hosting’s Form 10-Q for the year ended March 31, 2012, filed with the SEC on May 9, 2013. Except as required by law, Rackspace Hosting assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.
