It's Suprisingly Easy Being Green

Environmental issues have long been important to us at Palantir, even before the "green movement" of the last couple years. My very first job growing up was working at a recycling center owned by my parents, and ever since, I've been pretty insufferable about making everyone around me use recycled and environmentally-friendly products.

Fortunately, the popularity of the green movement means that it's a lot easier now to find these products at a competitive price, and to purchase them in the quantities necessary for business use. For example, Amazon sells Seventh Generation cleaning supplies and paper goods in bulk quantities that are probably too large for most households, but are perfect for a business of our size.

Of course, being environmentally-conscious is about more than buying the right products, it's also about behavior, e.g., biking to work or using public transportation instead of driving, not using disposable water bottles, etc. These things are far more difficult to change, especially for those of who lead busy lives, and when push comes to shove, I'll be the first to admit that I'm just as likely to fall off the environmental wagon as anyone else.

That said, we have made a few changes at Palantir over the last year or so to try to promote the use of environmentally sustainable products, reduce our carbon footprint, and promote the general health and welfare of our planet:

• Purchased a Prius hybrid for driving to and from business meetings, effectively reducing the amount of gasoline used in half.
• As they've burned out, replaced all of the 65-watt incandescent light bulbs in our office with 15-watt compact fluorescents, reducing energy consumption and heat generation.
• Completed the switch to LCD monitors, which use much less energy than CRTs.
• All new computer hardware purchased in 2007 and 2008 has used more energy-efficient processors.
• Replaced conventional chemical-based cleaning products with environmentally-friendly alternatives.
• Switched to recycled paper towels and toilet paper.
• Eliminated the purchase of bottled water for the office.

We're also currently in the process of calculating our carbon footprint and researching offset options, with the goal of making Palantir carbon-neutral (or better) by Earth Day, 2008.

The most striking thing to me about all of these efforts is that they haven't been that difficult to accomplish at all. In fact, in most cases we've found that the "green" choice is usually more affordable than the alternative. We're under no illusions that anything we do will "save the Earth", but like they say, every little bit helps, and at least in our case, it makes good business sense too.