Healthy and Sustainable
We are developing global programs to promote sustainability within our office environments. Some of our offices are built with USGBC LEED Green Building Certifications such as our corporate headquarters in Redwood City, California, which is LEED Gold certified.
A variety of regional programs exist to enhance the resource efficiency of our physical spaces. For example, even though Equinix does not generate a lot of waste, we are working to reduce waste in our offices and data centers.
We are committed to setting a good example for our employees via a variety of programs such as:
- Composting and recycling
- Providing water and innovative beverage stations to eliminate single-use plastic bottles
- Using energy-efficient coffee dispensers
- Completing LED lighting retrofits
- Innovating to reduce waste such as through the expanded use of Wi-Fi instead of wired cabling
- Donating retired computing equipment to nonprofits addressing the Digital Divide
Here are a few examples of how our team has advanced environmental sustainability within our offices worldwide:
Other 2019 Highlights
In some of our UK locations, we’ve partnered with office coffee and fruit suppliers who direct 5% of proceeds to community projects in Rwanda and Mali. A portion of funds from each case of coffee we purchase supports Kigeyo Nursery School in Rwanda, attended by many local coffee farmers’ children. Work this year has included refurbishing the school building with new windows, flooring and walls. A percentage of proceeds from fruit purchased for our Devonshire Square location supports the planting of fruit trees in Malawi. In 2019, Equinix’s purchases planted 289 guava trees.
Throughout the year, our offices sponsor events related to sustainability, including Earth Day Fairs and Bike to Work Days.
In 2019, the remodel of our Arques office in Silicon Valley incorporated aesthetically pleasing flexible workspaces, increased natural light, improved kitchen/break areas and a multi-functional gathering space used as a café, lounge or large presentation room, referred to as the Hive. This open design encourages collaboration, engagement and greater sense of community among employees.
Making a Difference on Global Earth Day and Beyond
Our ever-growing network of Equinix Impact activists (employees who have coordinated past volunteer events) have organized beach, river and lake clean-ups around the world in partnership with the Ocean Conservancy’s CleanSwell app, which allows volunteers to track and submit beach cleanup information to a global database of ocean trash data. The Ocean Conservancy is a nonprofit environmental advocacy group that creates science-based solutions to maintain a healthy ocean that can sustain the wildlife and communities that depend on it. Our volunteer campaign was built upon Equinix’s existing relationship with the Ocean Conservancy, which began with a $15,000 Equinix Impact grant to support the development of the CleanSwell app in 2016.
In celebration of Earth Day 2019, employees from Redwood City, Rio de Janeiro and Madrid (just to name a few locations) organized local clean-ups. Building off their Earth Day efforts in past years, employees in Madrid have continued to partner with the local Red Cross to raise awareness about protecting the environment and participate in cleanups of parks and other outdoor space.
In total in 2019, Equinix employees dedicated nearly 5,000 volunteer hours to environmental causes. Through Equinix’s Dollars for Doers program, all volunteers are eligible to earn $20 per hour (or the local currency equivalent) to donate to the charity of their choice. These funds, plus donations made by Equinix employees and contributions from the Equinix matching gifts program, added up to more than $350,000 in contributions to environmental causes in 2019.
Greening Global Events to Support Local Communities and Reduce Our Impact
Our Global Events team has made sustainability a core tenet of each event we oversee. Standard practices include working with hotels and restaurants to limit single-use plastics; recycling, composting or donating leftover food; using recycled and recyclable materials for signage; and, sourcing, seasonal, sustainable food whenever possible.
By partnering with local environmental organizations such as Save Our Shores and Wine to Water we are able to increase our impact within our communities; using recycled or repurposed materials for name badges; offering smaller, more sustainable attendee giveaways such as reusable metal straws; and promoting public transportation and ridesharing to and from airports.
In January 2020, our events team kicked off the implementation of new core sustainability initiatives at our global annual sales kickoff event, Connect 2020, resulting in:
- Diversion of 39,335 pounds of recyclables, compost and other materials from landfills.
- Donation of 525 pounds of uneaten, leftover banquet food was donated.
- Elimination of plastic water bottles and to-go coffee cups avoided at least 8,000 items from entering landfills.
- Planting 1,300 trees as a symbol of our commitment to reduce the carbon footprint of every attendee. Once these saplings reach maturity, each will sequester up to 48 pounds of CO2 per year or 1 ton of carbon dioxide over 40 years*.
Addressing Hunger in the Bay Area Through Our Food Recovery Programs
Equinix is passionate about food recovery. Despite the San Francisco Bay Area’s tech boom and the prosperity of Silicon Valley, many families in the area continue to struggle with hunger. More than 30% of Silicon Valley public-school students rely on free or reduced-price lunches, and one in three children may not know where their next meal is coming from. Copia™ uses smartphone technology and on-demand pickup to remedy the imbalance between leftover food at businesses and the severe lack of food many people in the Bay Area experience. Copia delivers leftover food to local shelters and food banks for distribution. Since partnering with Copia in mid-2016, we’ve donated several hundreds of pounds of excess food, providing nearly 1,000 meals to Redwood City, California residents.
Advocacy and Collaboration
Advocacy is a hallmark of our strategy as we leverage the buying power of many companies through a single voice.