Environmental
Sustainability and ensuring a healthy and thriving global supply chain is core to our business strategy. Our company and our culture are built upon responsible operations spanning a vast and far-reaching supply chain as well as a global footprint.
ePlus strives to generate value for our stakeholders while being a good steward of the environment and the earth’s natural resources.
Across the ePlus portfolio of solutions and services we are committed to:
- Operating our business in a manner that reduces our impact on the environment, reduces pollution, and protects the environment and natural resources.
- Managing the life cycle of our products, equipment and solutions in an environmentally responsible manner, including retirement and appropriate disposal.
- Maintaining full compliance with applicable environmental laws, regulations, and other obligations, including considering the potential environmental impacts of daily business decision-making processes, along with opportunities for conservation of natural resources, recycling, source reduction and pollution control. We require this same compliance of our business partners.
Enhancing Operational Efficiency through Warehouse Optimization
We are committed to enhancing our operational efficiency and reducing our environmental impact by consolidating our warehouse operations into a single, modern facility. This initiative will significantly decrease our energy consumption and physical footprint. The new warehouse is outfitted with cutting-edge technologies, including motion-sensor lighting and high-efficiency heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, along with a comprehensive recycling program. These improvements are aimed at creating a more sustainable operation by optimizing energy use and minimizing waste.
Optimizing Energy Use in IT Infrastructure
We are taking decisive steps to optimize our energy use by centralizing our computer labs into one highly efficient hub. This strategic move will lead to a reduction in the number of physical labs required, thus decreasing the demand for cooling and power without compromising our operational effectiveness. The new lab will feature advancements such as energy-efficient HVAC equipment, UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) systems designed to adjust power output based on actual energy needs, and innovative cabinet designs that require less power for cooling. These measures are designed to significantly reduce our energy consumption, contributing to our overall efforts to operate more sustainably and responsibly.
Our Current Sustainability Goals
Goal #1
ePlus will continue embracing a hybrid work strategy. Beginning in April 2024 and throughout the next two years, by March 2026 we are projecting to shrink our real estate footprint by 10% from approximately 300,000 square feet. This will not only reflect our leading position in hybrid work solutions but also bring significant energy savings, estimated at over 175,000 kWh annually. Between a reduction in real estate and a move to newer facilities, this equates to well over a 20% energy cost reduction.
The reduction in our real estate footprint allows ePlus to focus on the quality of its remaining real estate portfolio, while reinvesting its resources in space that enables employees and partners to maximize their time together.
Goal #2
With the construction of our new ePlus Customer Innovation Center (CIC) in Sterling, VA, we have redesigned our laboratory setup, energy consumption, management, and technology infrastructure. As of April 2023, we managed five separate lab locations housing a total of 54 cabinets. These cabinets used an estimated 3,311,280 kWh of energy and produced about 1,324,512 kg of CO2 emissions annually based on 7kWh per cabinet.
By March 2026, we aim to consolidate our operations into just 25 cabinets. We anticipate this change will lower our energy usage to approximately 1,533,000 kWh and reduce our CO2 emissions to 613,200 kg annually, based on an average of 7 kWh per cabinet. Additionally, we plan to upgrade our lab equipment to more energy-efficient models which should drive further savings. This upgrade will not only reduce our environmental footprint but also allow us to showcase cutting-edge technologies to our clients in a modern, eco-friendly conference center. These improvements are expected to cut our energy costs by over 50% and reduce our CO2 emissions by over 550,000 kg of CO2 emissions each year.
Asset Disposition
We prioritize the appropriate disposal and retirement of technology assets across our organization, ensuring that all disposition meets or exceeds approved environmental recommendations and standards. ePlus partners with organizations that hold e-Stewards, R2, and NAID AAA Certifications, demonstrating our support to help customers promote conservation, recycle and efficiently use energy, minimize impact on the environment and reduce operating costs. As this is an important priority for us, we also help our customers with these needs, including data destruction and responsible recycling for nearly any electronic devices. Services we offer to our customers include asset reallocation, decommissioning and disposal, recycling kits, asset refresh and buy back, and inventory/serial number capture.
Office Spaces
ePlus’ office locations provide a safe and productive home base for more than 1,000 of our employees. When we look for new office space to lease, we consider the environmental footprint of that location, including whether the space has any energy-related certifications, complies with all relevant green standards such as LEED and Green Globes and has carbon emission reduction goals. Our offices typically include energy-efficient features such as LED lights that turn off automatically, energy-efficient HVAC systems and insulation ratings, and recycling receptors.
Environmental Policy
We consistently attempt to partner with organizations who are environmentally aware and responsible. All of our major manufacturing partners employ and prioritize environmental sustainability practices of their own.
Recycling
ePlus encourages our employees to reduce waste by refraining from printing, encouraging and facilitating recycling materials by placing receptacle containers for paper, plastics, cans and bottles in our worksites.
Supply Chain
The ePlus vendor landscape includes Arista Networks, Cisco, Dell Technologies, HP Inc., HPE, Juniper Networks and NetApp, all of whom have publicly-stated commitments to the environment.
Our Roots Grow Deep:
We are proud to have added an environmental cause to our charitable efforts by committing to plant 10,000 trees through One Tree Planted, a non-profit organization dedicated to making it easier for individuals and businesses to give back to the environment, create a healthier climate, protect biodiversity, and help reforestation efforts around the world. This mission fits perfectly with the ePlus mantra of helping our customers see the forest “and” the trees when it comes to their IT strategy.
