What is your carbon footprint? Your carbon footprint refers to the load you are putting on the planet everyday in terms of consumables that contribute to greenhouse gases that many believe leads to global warming. It is measured in units of carbon dioxide. It can be calculated on a personal level or on the level of an entire organization. Why should you care? As 'sustainability' becomes a major theme in our culture, we will all be challenged to become more 'green' in our daily lives and work. The good news is that a lot is being done, and oftentimes it leads to unforseen benefits.

At FSSI, we have been very deliberate about reducing our carbon footprint. First, we recycle as much as we can. No printed documents leave our building unshredded. This is also a good security feature, as we don't worry about any of the personal and confidential information of our clients accidentally getting lost. We also recycle cardboard, pallets, used equipment and parts, and anything else that has been identified as being of value in a recycled form.

Second, we built features into our facility that reduce our carbon footprint. Perhaps our biggest example is our 400-ton Trane Chiller. This unit is used to condition the air in all our operations areas. It works on the principle of the "fan and the ice cube": the chiller turbine cools water to 47 degrees, and the water is circulated through 10" pipes around the building to air handlers that blow air over grilles filled with the cold water. It is 5 times as energy efficient as conventional computer room air conditioners, and very scalable. We could double our heat load, and the chiller would just spin a little faster to circulate more water throughout the building. It is equipped with variable speed drives, electrical appliances that regulate how much power is brought in from the grid. We only draw as much power as we need, again saving energy, and reducing the amount of power that needs to be produced from fossil fuels.

A third way we reduce our carbon footprint is by reducing our use of paper. As funny as that sounds for a printing facility, it's true! FSSI was one of the first statement vendors to offer web-viewable statements, and remotely hosted archives (8 years ago). We do all our work digitally, eliminating the need for any negatives or plates, (or eco-unfriendly oil-based inks). We encourage our clients to proof all their work via pdf images, avoiding the expense of printing or faxing samples. Again, the hidden benefit is that it is much faster, and it has actually enhanced our communications with our clients.

Ten years ago, FSSI had a fleet of vans and trucks that we sent out to pick up data and forms and envelopes. Today, we have one driver. More than 95% of our data is transmitted to us using high speed data lines. Result? Zero carbon footprint for data transmissions, and vastly reduced driving. Added benefits? It's faster, more efficient, and we know immediately if there are any errors in the data transmission.