Save fuel, use smarter software.
Dave, Matt and Dallas discuss an issue in iChat
Carbon Planet is a very distributed organisation. The only way we can manage that, and be true to our principles of maximum CO2 emissions reductions, is to use web-based collaboration systems such as Jira and Confluence by Atlassian for issue tracking and data sharing. By using these amazing web-based systems we’ve eliminated those file attachments that bog down other company’s email systems, and have a rich, collaborative, distributed system for sharing out work and knowledge.
I’m often in a different city to the other members of the Carbon Planet teams. Right now I am in Canberra, Matt, our new Account Manager, is in Adelaide and its hard to say where Dallas, our graphic designer, is. Davide and Sophie, key members of our research and audit team, are in Japan and Melbourne respectively at this moment. Jesse, our brilliant system administrator lives in Sydney. Wendy, our financial controller, likes to work 3 floors up from the rest of the Adelaide team in a room next to her husband, and Bill and Marnie, Web genius and Senior Auditor, like to work from their homes as often as they can. By using tools like iChat we can stay in touch in a vivid, almost tangible way and keep car and plane use to an absolute minimum.
All of our staff are issued an Apple Mac laptop when they join us. Why? Not just because they simply work and come stuffed to the gills with some insanely great software at no extra cost, but also because the mac laptops use much less power than the equivalent windows machines, despite having pretty much exactly the same Intel processors. There’s truly a lot to be said for using smarter software.
But there’s an ethical dimension to this too. Why would we use products made by a convicted corporate criminal with a proven disregard for the environment and, ironically enough, a penchant for using prison labour to package their software? Say what you like about Apple but their packaging is as minimal as possible while still protecting the kit it contains, and their industrial relations record amongst the world’s best.
These, and other broad social justice issues are important to us. We really do try to be the best company we can be; socially and environmentally as well as financially. Companies like Apple and Atlassian are corporate role models. — DS
Technorati Tags: Apple, Atlassian, business, Confluence, emissions reduction, global warming, iChat, Jira
