AMD Ups Its Green Commitment, in Part for Employees

There are a lot of financially sound reasons to adopt LEED standards for your next building. The resale value of the building will climb faster than normal. Spare space that needs to be rented out will go for a premium. Operations costs and energy bills will likely be far lower than they would if you built a conventional headquarters. (Jeanne Clinton, Clean Energy Advisor, California Public Utilities Commission, says green building has a negative cost because the financial gains will outweigh the initial expense.)

It’s a great recruiting tool as well, says Larry Vertal, senior strategist at AMD and the person who runs their sustainability programs.

“It is one of the soft things that many companies don’t understand but it is crucial in the retention and moral of employees,” he said. “It is amazing how the highest talented people will grill you about your sustainability practices in job interviews. ... We’ve seen a lot more interest in it, so it really does matter.”

As a result, AMD’s Lone Star Campus in Austin, completed earlier this year, figures prominently in the company’s marketing and its eighth annual Global Climate Protection Plan, issued today. Built to the LEED Gold standard, the building consumes 20 percent less energy than a similar building built to standard codes. It also sports the world’s largest water cachement system. All the energy for the facility is provided from renewable sources through Austin’s GreenChoice program.

The climate protection plan also includes new goals for its sustainability. The company is now shooting to reduce energy consumption by 40 percent in 2010 compared to a 2006 baseline and reduce carbon emissions by 33 percent in the same year by the same baseline. (And let’s not forget much larger rival Intel. Yesterday, it got the 2008 Green Power Leadership award and announced it invested in Trony Solar.)

Starting with this version of the report, AMD has begun to try to quantify and account for the greenhouse gases and energy consumption from third party suppliers. It will take quite a bit of work: The company’s suppliers will have to adopt standards to account for greenhouse gas emissions. On the other hand, they will be motivated: Despite two plus years of financial turmoil, AMD remains one of the largest chipmakers in the world. If you want to sell it vapor deposition chambers, get ready to report. Greenhouse gas and energy accounting will also likely become mandatory anyway under future regulations.

“There is no doubt in my mind that strong regulation and reporting requirements are coming here,” Vertal said.

Accounting for so-called “Scope 3” emissions from suppliers will also allow AMD to accommodate one of the biggest shifts in the company’s history: It is spinning off its manufacturing division. Without a change in reporting, AMD would see greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption plummet, but in a somewhat artificial way.

On a side note, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my favorite spiff used to increase employee loyalty. Back in the 90s, another semiconductor company used to offer household cleaning services at a highly subsidized rate. When employees contemplated a new job offer, they’d then wonder to themselves: “But what will happen to my cleaning lady?” It apparently worked, a source told me.