The document summarizes the green initiatives undertaken by Infosys to reduce its environmental impact and energy consumption. It details how the green initiatives team launched innovative projects like occupancy sensors, daylight sensors, and smart power strips to reduce electricity consumption. These initiatives helped Infosys cut its per capita electricity consumption by half and achieve its sustainability goals. The author believes Infosys' disruptive innovations can influence business design and potentially lead to significant reductions in global energy consumption.

1. White Paper
Green: The Color of Passion
- Rohan M. Parikh
The way I started with the Green Initiatives team is an interesting story. Nandan Nilekani himself interviewed me for the job
and, he said that he was willing to consider me for the position on the basis of my passion for sustainable architecture, but I
would retain my job…not if I merely excelled…but, if I could teach, as he put it “ Google how to google.” It was a challenge
to innovate.
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2. We let these goals drive all our actions. Now, smart procurement wasn’t about
securing the lowest “first cost”, but rather about optimizing cost across a product’s
lifecycle. Not only were we saving energy, but costs as well. It was only natural
that our determination to use energy efficient products would lead to a quest
for efficient design. Soon, we turned our attention to the one thing that
consumed the maximum amount of energy, our buildings. The ironic thing
Infosys has always been an
about building design is that it pays little attention to energy efficiency. We built
environmentally conscious company.
a team of building physicists and, with their inputs, began to challenge the way
Visit one of our campuses and you’ll
our buildings were being designed.
see it straightaway. But four years
ago, we launched a green initiatives It was the first time that Infosys introduced performance clauses for their
team with the goal of setting an architects! Now, every design mandate came with an energy efficiency rider; for
example in sustainability by coming example, every building needed to harvest as much daylight as possible. But
up with great ideas that we could in order to build these criteria, we had to first install energy meters that would
replicate time and again and also take deep measurements of the efficiency performance of our buildings. Soon,
share with the rest of the world. We we had a 24x7 energy consumption profile of our buildings, which opened our
wanted to set global benchmarks eyes to not only how much energy was being used, but also how much was
by showcasing green initiatives going to waste, simply because our lights and computers hadn’t been switched
that made financial, along with off for the night.
sustainable sense.
This sparked off a stream of ideas about ways to conserve energy, many of which
And so, we took on a number of were conceptualized in innovations yielding more than fair payback. The first of
ambitious goals: to cut our per capita these projects related to an occupancy sensor that would adjust the amount of
electricity consumption by half; lighting in a room by sensing human body heat, turning lights off the moment it
to use electricity generated from sensed none. Another of our innovations was extensively leveraging the daylight
renewable resources; to become sensor, an antidote to the tendency of keeping office lights on throughout the
water sustainable by putting back day. The daylight sensor kept track of the natural light streaming in through the
more than we took from the ground; windows to adjust the amount of artificial lighting inside. We got an illumination
to use only rain or recycled water specialist to simulate the lighting schemes in our buildings and recommend the
and; to reduce waste. optimal distribution of lights, which also brought down the overall consumption
of electricity.
With the connected lighting load coming down by 50% and actual consumption
by a massive 66%, we were well on our way to realizing our first goal. These initial
successes inspired bolder moves, some, which we believe will disrupt the way
the world manages its demand for power in future.
For instance, the granular data from our energy meters was telling us that the
nighttime computer load was 50% of the daytime peak, simply because the
machines hadn’t been turned off. We toyed with several ideas – a script that
would automatically terminate a computer session, emails urging employees
to act responsibly, a pop-up which let a computer user know first thing in the
morning, how much electricity was wasted during the night, but none of these
really worked.
A search for a proactive solution ended at Infosys Labs - our R&D arm and
innovation nerve center. They helped build a smart power strip, which we
attached to the plug points in our premises. When the intelligent power strip
sensed an idle computer or phone charger, which was not being used, but was
still drawing power, it would send a text alert to the concerned employee’s
mobile phone. The employee could then instruct the power strip – over the
mobile phone – to switch everything off.
This innovation received the MIT Tech Review Award. We believe that the
technology will come of age in a few years when all power strips will come with
smart metering, communication, sensing and controlling capability, and even
2 | Infosys – White Paper

3. follow “business rules” on how to react during a particular event of “thumb rule engineering”. The enthusiasm must have been
(like an emergency blackout, for example). infectious, because our design team backed us up each time to
come up with significant improvements on what were essentially
Then there was another of our innovations, which challenged the
good models.
current science of cooling. We found that 40% of our total energy
consumption went into air conditioning and other cooling systems. And all along, we have stayed true to our original goal of creating
We investigated a bit, and took a technology called radiant cooling innovations that are financially viable, can be replicated in the
out of the laboratory and put it to work. By embedding water pipes outside world, and perhaps even monetized in the future. Each
inside concrete slabs, we were able to cool the space using 30% of our projects has more than paid for itself. And there are other
less energy than conventional methods! benefits as well – our low environmental footprint has won us many
admirers among clients and prospective employees.
I believe that the reason for our success can be found in our
collective passion and commitment to sustainability. This is what But above all, we see that our disruptive innovations have the
led us to think outside the box and dare to work with disruptive power to influence business design in future. Where could that
ideas. We threw out inefficient practices, including the science lead to? A 5% saving in global energy consumption? 10% even?
I am lucky that my job allows me to enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build a little bit of tomorrow’s planet.
About the Author
Rohan M. Parikh
Head Green Initiatives/Infrastructure at Infosys
The Green Infrastructure team is a strategy, design, and R&D team focused on setting global benchmarks in corporate environmental
sustainability. Infosys develops three million square feet of high performing green buildings/campus each year and is driving
the design of the next generation of high performance smart buildings and campuses for Infosys. Infosys has received 4 LEED
(Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) platinum certifications for its buildings in Jaipur, Mysore, Trivandrum, and
Hyderabad.
Rohan has been with Infosys since 2003. Rohan holds a master’s degree in Civil engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana
Champaign. Previously, he worked as an entrepreneur all over the world.
Infosys – White Paper | 3

4. About Infosys
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© 2012 Infosys Limited, Bangalore, India. Infosys believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date; such information is subject to change without notice. Infosys acknowledges
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