Although its signature color is orange, ING is embracing another color: green.
The company’s new 475,000- square-foot facility off Day Hill Road in Windsor, which opened last fall, was built for optimum energy efficiency. Aside from saving money and the planet, its innovative efforts have also earned it a 2008 Climate Change Leadership Award from the Governor’s Steering Committee on Climate Change.
ING’s Windsor facility was honored with six other entities, including the farmers’ market organization CitySeed in New Haven; the city of Stamford; Curtis Packaging in Newtown; the Green Council at Whitney Center in Hamden; Little People, Big Changes in Wilton; and the Ridgefield Action Committee for the Environment in Ridgefield.
Practical Steps
“The challenge of climate change is also an opportunity to rebuild our economy on principles of sustainability, including energy efficiency, clean energy, cleaner transportation, local food systems and carbon neutrality,” Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Gina McCarthy said at the ceremony honoring the award recipients.
“Those we are honoring today are demonstrating the common sense, practical and cost effective steps we can all take to achieve those goals,” she added.
In its regional headquarters facility in Windsor, ING has installed occupancy sensors, daylight harvesting control systems and highly efficient air-conditioning.
The company also has an aggressive recycling program that aims for a 50 percent recycling rate in 2008. The company also encourages carpooling and other forms of mass transit, subsidizing a portion of the cost of that transportation for its employees.
ING promotes national campaigns, like Energy Star’s change-a-light, among its employees and encourages employees to use their own mugs. The company also composts food in the office.
Orange Turning Green
“We are honored to be recognized by the Governor’s Steering Committee on Climate Change,” said Catherine Smith, CEO of U.S. Insurance for ING. “We’re working with our customers and our partners to make sure that we’re doing what we can to help impact the environment, both here and around the world. As we like to say, orange is definitely going green.”
As a company, ING claims to be carbon-neutral. In 2007, the Netherlands-based company’s American arm purchased more than 70 million kilowatt-hours of clean energy. That offsets 100 percent of the electricity used in all its facilities nationwide.
Globally, ING has reduced its energy consumption by 19 percent between 2006 and 2007.
ING offsets all of its global business travel by supporting the planting and rehabilitation of 741 acres of degraded tropical rainforest in Malaysia.