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Although Spring is a little ways off, signs of green have begun popping up around the Sabre
offices, thanks to a recent push for the company to become more environmentally-conscious.
 Corporate
A group of Corporate employees took recycling into their own hands... literally. By separating
recyclable cans, bottles and paper from their trash to ensure that they are recycled, and taking
turns bringing employees' recycling home to avoid throwing it away, several employee recyclers
inspired the company's investigation of implementing office-wide recycling.
The Warminster complex will now be recycling everything from plastic and glass bottles and
cans, to paper and cardboard.
The office has also formed a "Green Team," which is comprised of employee volunteers who will
collaborate on future earth-conscious projects and help ensure that the company is doing its part.
Corporate employees will also start to notice "Go Green" posters located around the office,
which remind them of ways they can reduce environmental impact while at work. Each office
will also be sent a copy of these posters for usage as well.
Company-Wide
But the "Green Initiative" extends beyond the Corporate Office. The company itself has made
several changes in the name of the environment.
Aside from these endeavors, the company has also made some steps to "Green" its IT
Department. Sabre currently has 22 servers virtualized over a VMWare ESX cluster. This
VMWare ESX cluster is composed of 3 new PowerEdge 2950 servers that have been optimized
for low energy consumption. Lower energy consumption reduces heat generated from the server.
The less heat used means the less cooling required. The smaller the need for air conditioning, the
less electricity used which, in turn means the less waste generated. The company will be
consolidating several more physical servers into the cluster in the coming months as well.
In addition, the IT department has begun a migration to flat panel monitors, which require less
power consumption. And, the company has contracted Elemental, Inc. (www.eleminc.com) to
recycle all old computers equipment, including monitors, printers, laptops, desktops, fax
machines, etc. Sabre also pays for the disposal of old tube monitors. Old corporate cell phones
and PDAs are sent back to the carrier and UPS batteries are sent back to the manufacturer.
The Marketing and Communications Department (MarCom) has begun to investigate "Green
Give-aways" for tradeshows and conferences. The department recently replaced the paper bags
that are distributed at job fairs, with reusable totes that can double as grocery bags or even lunch
carriers. MarCom plans to further investigate environmentally-friendly products that might prove
useful at future events as well. MarCom will also be incorporating a new series in each edition of
the company newsletter, which will detail suggestions about how to "Green" the office.
Although Sabre is off to a great Green start, there are certainly other things the group could be
doing to decrease its carbon footprint. The company, with the help of the Green Team and all
interested employees, will continue to investigate these items, and will hopefully be
implementing further environmentally-friendly processes in the future.
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