We All Have A Part To Play

A sustainable planet starts at the roots – with each of us – but does not stop there. It grows in our homes, communities and the companies where we work, as well as with the customers and industries we serve.

We’ve made positive strides over the years at Commvault, such as our move to packaging-free software in 2009 to building a LEED-certified headquarters in 2015 (including materials from sustainable sources). In 2018, we partnered with my good friends Robert and Barney Swan in support of the South Pole Energy Challenge – the first Polar expedition to rely solely on renewable energy. 

Today, we are using Earth Day 2019 as the jumping-off point to be a more sustainable business.

Home is where the start is

At Commvault, in Q2, we will be launching a new charter and policy for our reinvigorated sustainability program that reinforces our commitment to driving sustainable growth through environmentally- and socially-responsible business practices; diverse and inclusive employee experiences; and the ongoing support of our local and global communities.

I look forward to partnering with our incoming diversity and inclusion leader to extend our sustainability and corporate social responsibility. This includes establishing an international sustainability committee to collaborate with team members to extend best practices and reduce our environmental footprint throughout our facilities and supplier ecosystem.

As a starting point, beginning today – in our Tinton Falls, N.J. headquarters – we are instituting changes that will eliminate 70,000 single use plastic cups and 12,500 plastic water bottles annually; we are also ending the scourge of plastic straws from our cafeteria. Additionally, over the coming weeks, we will end individual work station trash receptacles (fancy sounding name for a can). This change alone will eliminate approximately 250,000 plastic garbage bags per year. Go back and read that last line again… wow. We are also beginning a pilot program this week for a new coffee system that will help us dramatically reduce what is an estimated 12,000 pounds of coffee waste annually – once again, in our HQ alone.

We are just getting started

In addition to increasing our transparency and accountability to our employees, customers, partners and shareholders, we’re also looking at ways our software can support our customers’ sustainability initiatives. How, you ask?

• Cloud: Commvault customers now manage data approaching 1 Exabyte in the cloud; helping customers easily migrate data to the cloud makes a difference – as the carbon footprint is significantly reduced (compared to traditional data centers).
• SaaS: Our SaaS services run on a cloud that is operationally carbon neutral.
• Deduplication and policy automation: In addition to the recent trend moving data to the cloud, Commvault’s deduplication and policy automation capabilities reduce the storage required no matter where the data resides (hence, the environmental costs).
• Modern scale-out architectures: Commvault HyperScale™ helps companies grow as they need – gone are the days of data centers with underutilized servers and storage.
• Fewer copies: We work with customers around the world to reduce the cost and complexity caused by many point solutions. These point solutions create additional copies that need to sit on costly storage.

It starts with us

The difference we want to make in the world, ultimately, starts with all of us. We are proud to be increasing our commitment to Commvault’s “Do the Right Thing” value with our employees, customers and partners throughout our local and global communities.

Earth Day gives all of us a moment in time for some self-reflection. These changes at Commvault are a step in the right direction, but we’re just getting started. As the program gains momentum, we’ll be doing more around the world. We are committed to making a difference for years to come.