Posted by Jamie in Green Companies, Green Products & Services | 0 Comments
Yahoo! going for the green
Yahoo!, best known for its powerful search engine, web portals, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Directory, news, and social media websites, has pursued eco-friendly practices inside and outside of its Silicon Valley headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. From its robust green media campaigns on the Internet to the use of CFLs in its offices to promote energy efficiency, Yahoo! Is advocating its environmental message to the four corners of the world.
Yahoo! demonstrates its unflagging commitment to the environment by launching several eco-friendly initiatives that promote sustainability through a reduced dependence on non-renewable energy, materials, and water.
Media campaigns. Yahoo! has utilized the global spread of its sites to promote energy efficiency, making it a Flex Your Power Award Winner in Media and Education Category. In 2007, it launched a site that advocated switch to CFLs, and other eco-friendly sites including the Earth Day site, Yahoo! Green, Yahoo! Answers, and the Yahoo! Green Holiday Gift Guide. These sites give out information, tips, and environmental news as well as ways to take action. Other media green campaigns include Free is Good, Be a Green Icon, Be a Better Planet, Greenworld Contest, and Big Shot at Cannes.
Green corporate culture. Yahoo! fosters a unique corporate culture that encourages earth-friendly and healthy practices among its employees. It has an interactive ‘Green Screen’ that allows its employees to monitor and compare energy use between buildings. It also advocates for healthy living, starting with its vegetarian cafeteria, awarded as the Most Vegetarian- and Earth-Friendly Corporate Cafeteria by PETA, an animal rights group.
Clean air. Yahoo! values clean air and has stepped up in its efforts to help decrease the impacts of vehicle emissions on the environment. It developed a breakthrough Commute Alternatives Program that allows employees to commute in the most eco-friendly and cost-efficient manner possible. For this creative initiative, it was adjudged Winner of the Breathe California’s 2006 Clean Air Award for Employee Transportation Programs and Gold Level Award in the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s Spare the Air campaign.
Carbon-neutral. To combat climate change, Yahoo! is walking the talk when it comes to being carbon-neutral. Starting with its use of alternative energy at its Sunnyvale headquarters, it has taken this advocacy globally, investing in a hydroelectric power plant in a remote Brazilian town called Catorce de Abril. With Yahoo’s help, the town acquired access to electricity and the Internet, where children can now help spread the green message through Yahoo!’s sites and services.
