The Carbon Reduction Target is the First for the Company
BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr. 22, 2013--
Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE:IRM) pledged today to cut its absolute
greenhouse gas emissions across North America and the United Kingdom
five percent below 2012 levels by the end of 2014. On this annual
observance of Earth Day, the company advanced its commitment to
environmental sustainability, setting a carbon reduction goal for the
first time in the history of the storage and information management firm.
“Reducing our carbon footprint is the right thing to do both for our
business and our environment,” said Iron Mountain President and CEO
Bill
Meaney
. “With thousands of trucks on the road and an expansive network
of storage facilities, we plan to continually optimize our operations so
that we’re serving customers most efficiently and minimizing our
environmental impact in the process. We’re excited about the progress
we’ve made with sustainability, and we’re proud to announce our
first-ever target for reducing greenhouse gases.”
Achieving the goal will require the company to eliminate approximately
13,500 metric tons of absolute greenhouse gas emissions relative to its
carbon footprint in 2012. According to the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas
Equivalencies Calculator, that’s equal to taking 2,800 vehicles off the
road for one year. To do so, Iron Mountain will focus on several
initiatives to lower energy usage at its storage facilities and improve
the fuel economy of its truck fleet.
Continuing on work from last year, Iron Mountain and real estate partner
CBRE are upgrading lighting systems in facilities across the United
States and Canada with high-efficiency T8 lamps. The project will reduce
the company’s carbon footprint, improve the working environment at these
facilities and yield an expected annual energy savings of approximately
$2 million.
Iron Mountain is also taking steps to reduce the fuel consumption of its
truck fleet. The company has worked for more than a decade to optimize
the density of its service-delivery routes, ensuring couriers serve the
most customers over the fewest miles. Iron Mountain is also installing
telematics technology in its U.S. vehicles, after having successfully
outfitted its U.K. fleet with similar systems. The technology provides
transportation leaders with vehicle speed, acceleration rates, idle
time, odometer information and cruise control settings so they can coach
couriers on operating vehicles more efficiently. Today, nearly 900 Iron
Mountain trucks in the United States and United Kingdom carry the
systems, and the company intends to have them in approximately 3,000
vehicles by the end of 2014.
Other environmental initiatives not tied to the five percent goal
include Iron Mountain’s partnership with SunEdison to enable the
production of solar energy from photovoltaic cells placed atop several
Iron Mountain storage facilities in New England. The first panels were
installed this month at a facility in Windsor, Conn., and the company
will add panels at other facilities throughout the year.
Iron Mountain is also working to implement waste management plans at all
its facilities in North America and the United Kingdom by the end of
2014.This expands on a recycling program started in 2012 at the
company’s corporate headquarters and will include processes for reducing
both office and operational waste. Additionally, Iron Mountain will
continue to support its customers’ sustainability goals by recycling
securely shredded client documents and diverting 450,000 tons of paper
from landfills every year in the process.
“One of the key pillars in our corporate responsibility program, Taking
CARE, is our commitment to environmental sustainability,” said
Samantha Joseph
, director of corporate responsibility for Iron Mountain.
“Iron Mountain has a culture of continuous improvement. We are always
looking for ways to improve our efficiency and service quality to our
customers, and we value being able to help customers meet their
environmental goals. Our company’s commitment to sustainability is
integral to our business strategy.”
Taking CARE also includes global strategies and initiatives for
community engagement, employee advocacy and information responsibility.
Visit www.ironmountain.com/responsibility
for more information.
About Iron Mountain
Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE: IRM) is a leading provider of storage
and information management services. The company’s real estate network
of over 64 million square feet across more than 1,000 facilities in 35
countries allows it to serve customers with speed and accuracy. And its
solutions for records
management, data
backup and recovery, document
management, and secure
shredding help organizations to lower storage costs, comply with
regulations, recover from disaster, and better use their information for
business advantage. Founded in 1951, Iron Mountain stores and protects
billions of information assets, including business documents, backup
tapes, electronic files and medical data. Visit www.ironmountain.com
for more information.
Source: Iron Mountain Incorporated
Media
Iron Mountain
Dan O’Neill, 617-535-2966
dan.oneill@ironmountain.com
or
Weber
Shandwick
Katie Traut, 617-520-7135
ktraut@webershandwick.com