I am incredibly proud that we have reached our target two years ahead of schedule. This represents both a significant step toward fulfilling our commitment to long-term sustainability and global impact, as well as our commitment to accountability and transparency in the management of our environmental footprint. We must work together to create an economy that will enable dramatic reductions in emissions and build resilience.
Nicola Acutt, Vice President, Sustainability Strategy, Office of the CTO, VMware
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VMware became a CarbonNeutral® company across its global operations in 2018. The company started its carbon neutral journey by making its data centres CarbonNeutral® certified in 2017. It then expanded its programme to become a CarbonNeutral® certified company in 2018, incorporating additional facilities and business travel. It did this two years ahead of its original target of 2020.
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An independent third-party specialising in technology, and local to VMware's headquarters, conducted the greenhouse gas emissions assessment. The assessment concluded that most emissions were from electricity for heating and cooling of technology hardware and business travel of staff.
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VMware set a target to become a CarbonNeutral® company by 2020.
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VMware became a CarbonNeutral® company two years ahead of schedule in 2018 through a combination of efficiency measures, product innovation, renewable energy generation and procurement, and external emission reduction projects.
Internal emission reductions have been delivered through energy efficiency initiatives including fitting LED lightbulbs across all its offices and a behaviour-change initiative to encourage switching equipment off from standby.
VMware is working towards making the company 100% supplied by renewable energy. Natural Capital Partners helped VMware purchase renewable energy in the countries where it has operations through Energy Attribute Certificates. VMware’s carbon neutral goal has been met by financing emission reduction projects that build low carbon sustainable development in Guatemala and India. For rural communities in Guatemala, water filters provide clean drinking water without needing to boil it, reducing emissions from less burning of wood. In India, solar water heaters replace the erratic and fossil fuel intensive electricity for hot water, providing homes and institutions with a cleaner and more reliable supply.
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Certifying as a CarbonNeutral® company is one of five key goals related to VMware 2020, the company's vision to serve as a force for positive global impact. VMware has communicated its commitments and achievements through a variety of channels: it blog, its global customer conference, lunchtime presentations to staff, and webinars. In addition, staff visited the Guatemala emission reduction project to see first-hand the large scale impact on water infrastructure that comes from financing emissions reductions through water filters. This had particular relevance to employees given that water conservation is another key pillar of VMware 2020.
VMware staff visit water filtration emission reduction project in Guatemala in 2018