Members in Focus: Intel
2010-06-29
Members in Focus
This month we will focus on a Business in the Community Ireland member company and one of our Summit on Corporate Responsibility 2010 sponsors, Intel.
Lisa Harlow, External Affairs Manager at Intel discusses their approach to CR, how they live their values, their current priorities, working in collaboration with other companies and how they are engaged in the climate change debate.
Last year Intel celebrated its 20th anniversary of operations in Ireland, how have your Corporate Responsibility programmes and activities developed here over the past two decades?
Corporate Responsibility has always been an integral part of how Intel does business and the same is true for Intel in Ireland over the past 20 years. There has always been a strong focus on the areas of Community, Education and Environment and over time we have developed programs to meet changing objectives in each of these areas. Over the past 2 decades many of our programs have evolved and grown from their initial inception and much of this can be attributed to increased collaborations and the strengthening of relationships with stakeholders. Programs have also matured to reflect changing needs and advancements in technology. For instance, our early education programs consisted of basic hardware donations to support classroom learning. Today our technology donations initiatives look at not only hardware but at software usage, entire school digital infrastructure and teacher learning support models. Experience in schemes such as our Intel Involved program, has helped us to evolve the initiative to reflect current needs not only of recipient organisations but of employee volunteers. For example, we have just recently begun a skills based volunteering program which allows employees to share their specific knowledge and talents with a number of organisations.
The culture amongst Intel Ireland employees has always been one that reflects a strong commitment to Corporate Responsibility and this has only grown stronger over the past 20 years.
How does Intel address improving people's lives through technology?
One example of how Intel is improving people's lives through technology is the Community Solutions program. Community Solutions leverages Intel core competencies to advance Intel architecture through community projects that use technology solutions to solve community challenges, builds stronger communities by facilitating community-based problem solving and enhances Intel's capability as a world class technology leader delivering value to our customers.
One of the first Community Solutions projects undertaken in conjunction with the Intel Ireland campus was to work with Kildare County Council to bring the new library in Leixlip to flagship status by incorporating some of the most up to date technical capabilities to the building. Kildare County Council wanted the technology and ethos of the library to work hand in hand and allow both flexibility and mobility. The aim of the collaboration of Intel and the library services was to provide a solution for the community that would be a flagship for other libraries in the future.
Another Community Solutions initiative was undertaken with Ryevale Nursing Home where a project was completed by Intel to provide expertise to the nursing home in Leixlip in order to assist them in implementing a new ICT infrastructure which would enable innovative technology solutions within the nursing home. The project began in January 2007 and it was decided that it would involve three phases. The first phase of the project was to design and deploy a total wireless IT solution for the local nursing home. The second phase involved staff training and the third phase of the program was the provision of technology solutions which included a nursing home management operating system, webcams, snoozelen rooms, e-scraps books and multimedia sensory immersions.
Intel Ireland is also involved, through the Digital Health Group's Product Research & Innovation Europe (PRIe) team based in Leixlip, in the TRIL (Technology Research for Independent Living) Centre. The TRIL centre was established to help tackle the challenge of demographic ageing and its approach is to combine high quality clinical investigation with intensive qualitative research to develop culturally appropriate technologies that enable older people to live independently at home, whilst feeling comfortable and well connected in their communities.
Intel also engages in a technology program for primary schools named eSchools which enables them to embrace the use of wireless technology in the classroom. Annually, Intel donates a classroom technology package to a chosen school which includes up to 30 new laptops, a dedicated teacher laptop, an LCD projector and a portable trolley unit to allow the kit to be moved between classrooms. Students and teachers use the wireless laptops to access the internet from anywhere in the school allowing them to incorporate technology into the teaching and learning process. In conjunction with the equipment donation, Intel facilitates teacher training to demonstrate how to best use the technology to support classroom learning. This program is now entering its third year and results from within the 2 schools (Scoil Bhride, Leixlip, Scoil San Carlo, Leixlip) who have already been involved in the initiative has been very positive.
How would you describe Intel's approach towards living its values?
Performing to values is an important part of the Intel culture and one of the most important of these values is to ‘Be an asset to our communities worldwide'. At Intel Ireland we are committed to implementing programs and supporting initiatives that help us live this value day to day. Some of the key elements include:
- Volunteerism - We encourage all our employees to take part in the Intel Involved program in which they can volunteer to help with local community and educational projects.
- Matching Grants - The Intel Involved Matching Grant Program aims to recognize and motivate Intel employees to engage in outreach and volunteerism to make our communities a better place to live. Its objective is to support employees giving their time and talent to qualified non-profits and non-government organizations, in addition to schools.
- Stakeholder engagement - we works to actively engage with a number of community, education, environment and government stakeholders. One practical example of a dedicated stakeholder engagement initiative is that of the Community Advisory Panel. Representatives from the community are invited to participate on our Community Advisory Panel, which consists of 17 community members who represent various local community groups and key interest areas in the wider community.
- Environmental sustainability - At Intel Ireland, we work to minimize our environmental footprint every day. We focus on managing our operations responsibly, making our products more energy efficient, and working to lead sustainability initiatives across the world.
- Education initiatives - Intel believes that students everywhere should be taught the skills necessary to achieve their potential, actively participate in society and become the next generation of innovators. In Ireland, Intel is actively involved in education programs for teachers and students at primary, post primary and third level. For example, at post-primary level, Intel partners with Discover Science and Engineering (DSE) to co-fund SciFest, a series of second level science fairs hosted annually in the Institutes of Technology. To date over 5,000 students have exhibited at SciFest.
Intel is one of 3 companies including An Post and Microsoft collaborating on the ‘Log On, Learn' initiative. Could you tell us more about this and why Intel got involved?
Log On, Learn is a simple and user-friendly method devised to engage our older population in computer training, using the principles of the one-to-one method. The program is designed to ‘buddy up' a participating transition year student tutor with an older person from their local community, so each shares their skills. In 8-weekly training sessions, which take place in the school's computer lab/room, the student tutor shares; knowledge of how to use a PC and mouse, basic word processing & internet applications and confidence to overcome the ‘fear factor' surrounding ‘new' technologies. The older person shares; ability to relate and communicate, memories of culture / rituals and life experience.
What prompted your company to develop this project?
The global population is aging. Between 1950 and 2000, the number of people over 60 tripled, rising from 200 million to 600 million people. The accelerating age wave will bring massive challenges and to complicate the challenges, many of the elderly remain outside the digital society. As technology transforms more areas of modern life, this means that the elderly will experience greater difficulty accessing government services, managing their health, shopping, and staying in touch with family and friends. Many older people experience a ‘fear factor' about computers and often express the opinion that computers are ‘not for them'. However, experience demonstrates that training which is delivered in a local setting, on a one-to-one, tailor-made basis proves most successful. With this in mind, the Log On, Learn program has been created.
Last April, Intel celebrated the success of the 2009 Matching Grant Initiative rewarding community groups with over $300k worth of donations. Intel employees volunteered more than 42,000 hours last year, what do you think is the key to the success of your engagement with employees on this innovative volunteer initiative?
There are a number of important aspects to ensuring successful employee engagement in volunteer initiatives, some of these include:
- Corporate endorsement - the Intel Involved program and the matching grant initiative are corporate led programs which run across Intel sites globally and which are endorsed by Intel's senior management committee.
- Making it accessible - an important aspect of driving participation in projects amongst employees is ensuring that the opportunities to take part are easily accessible to them. This can be as simple as ensuring that projects happen both on as well as offsite, giving plenty of opportunity and variety in projects and implementing projects that can be supported by entire departments as intact groups.
- Making it fun - employees are more likely to participate in projects that offer them the opportunity to have fun and do new and exciting activities.
- Matching grants - employees have the opportunity to register their volunteer activities for the matching grant scheme and this is a big incentive towards encouraging participation. Grants are awarded at a rate of $10 for every hour volunteered.
- Variety - project opportunities should reflect a diverse number of interests.
- Skills based - another important aspect of volunteering is to align it with specific skills where possible as this makes the initiative more relevant to employees and more valuable to the recipient organisations.
- Culture - volunteering is embedded into the Intel culture and is valued by employees.
- Strong communications process - ensuring that we communicate with employees frequently about volunteering is key. We use dedicated campaigns, proliferated through a number of communication channels, to do this. Some of these channels include; intranet news stories, direct emails, access to an online database, plasma screen updates in canteens and visual display boards at entrances.
How is Intel engaging in the climate change debate and what are your core areas of focus in reducing your own environmental impact?
At Intel Ireland, we work to minimize our environmental footprint every day. We focus on managing our operations responsibly, making our products more energy efficient, and working to lead sustainability initiatives across the world. We believe that technology will be fundamental to addressing the world's environmental challenges.
The Intel Ireland Environmental Management System (EMS) is accredited to the ISO 14001 standard (since 1996) and particular focus areas include energy conservation, waste reduction and water conservation. Over the course of 2009, the management system on site was reviewed by external bodies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which confirms compliance with a high standard of environmental performance.
Energy Reduction - Between 2001 and 2009, Intel Ireland implemented energy reduction projects which have resulted in annualised savings of 85 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year and 107 million kilowatt-hours of natural gas per year. In 2009, we implemented energy reduction projects which reduced annualised usage by 4% by year-end.
Waste Reduction and Recycling - Over the course of 2009, we modified a system which means that a chemical waste (which was previously sent off-site for treatment) is now converted to copper balls which are sent for recovery. We continued to achieve high recycle rates - in 2009, the recycle rate for chemical waste was 76% while the recycle rate for solid waste was 92%.
Water Conservation - Between 2001 and 2009, Intel Ireland implemented water conservation projects which have resulted in annualized savings of 2.2 million cubic metres per year. In 2009 alone, a number of projects were carried out which have an estimated saving of 120,000 cubic metres per year.
Other Initiatives - Intel Ireland is one of several ESIA (European Semiconductor Industry Association) companies that have signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) to reduce member companies' absolute emissions of industrial global warming gases such as perfluororcarbons (PFC's) to10% (on a MMTCE basis) below the 1995 baseline emissions by 2010. Intel Ireland is well on track to meet this target despite the increase in production over that time-frame.
For more information, visit www.intel.com
