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"The Commerce With a Conscience Series is supported by Fedex. FedEx does more than shipping. They offer solutions like transporting heart valves to those in need and helping entrepreneurs bring their ideas to life. See how.\nThe Great Law of the Iroquois places responsibility on the tribe's chief for his decisions' impact on the seventh generation to come after him. David Conrad, Nokia's senior manager for sustainability operations, says the Nokia corporation is charged with the same responsibility as an Iroquois chief. As a company with global influence, Nokia \u2014 like many other tech giants \u2014 embeds sustainability into its initiatives.\n\"We need to provide for the needs of the current generation without compromising the needs of the future generation,\" says Conrad.   \nSustainability \u2014 that is the practice of considering of the earth's long-term well-being \u2014 has become a major buzzword. An MIT and Boston Consulting Group study found that 70% of corporations intend to invest more time or attention from management in sustainability this year. \nThe study also emphasizes that investment in sustainable practices have survived the economy's downturn. As world governments struggle to agree on policies for addressing climate change, corporations are paving the way toward a sustainable future.\nTech companies are among the leaders of the sustainability movement, which is not surprising because they're in the business of innovation. We've highlighted some of the ways tech companies are committing to sustainability.\n1. Developing Green Products\nCan you imagine what it would be like to never need to plug in your computer? Samsung has made the no-charge computer a reality with the creation of the solar-powered laptop, the NC215, which is a hot commodity for emerging markets with inconsistent electricity supplies.\nThe company has also developed a series of mobile phones \u2014 Replenish, Reclaim and Blue Earth \u2014 available on Sprint, that are made of bioplastic from corn, have energy efficient chargers and have fully recyclable packaging.\n\"For some consumers, this is a huge factor in the decision,\" explains David Steel, Samsung executive vice president of strategy and corporate communications. \"Consumers take interest in companies and then they see if they do have specific products that don't harm the environment.\"\nIntel also debuted a solar-powered processor in September at its annual developer conference. Intel CTO Justin Rattner claimed the chip is five times more energy efficient than today's processors \u2014 the chip recaptures the energy it emits \u2014 but it is not close to ready for mass production. \n2. Encouraging Innovation\n\n\nIntel not only offers a Sustainability in Action grant to any of its employees who want to undertake a project in sustainability, but also awards its employees bonuses based on their environmental performance. Grants can be awarded for small initiatives \u2014 like planting sunflower seeds in a vacant lot \u2014 or much larger ones, such as the green algae project featured in the above video. An Intel employee proposed testing whether algae would grow from emitted CO2 gasses from the company's factories.\n\"There's a lot of potential innovation from employees at your company who may not be working full-time in one of those areas,\" says Gary Niekerk, Intel's director of global citizenship, noting that the algae project was proposed by a company attorney. \n3. Rethinking the Entire Life Cycle\n\n\nUnlike Samsung, Nokia does not offer any specific green products because, Conrad says, sustainability is embedded into all of its operations. The company takes a holistic \"life cycle\" approach to sustainability, meaning environmental impact is considered in device production, packaging, transporting and removal. Environmental engineers are involved in design, materials specialists eliminate hazardous chemicals, packaging specialists focus on reducing paper and the company administrates a voluntary device take-back, ensuring devices' responsible recycling that does not involve reexporting (see above).\nAs another leader in device take-back, Samsung offers device return opportunities in 1,200 locations across the U.S. and has processed 60 million pounds to date.      \nFor Intel, a major part of a sustainable product life cycle is the use of renewable energy. The company is now the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy credits in the U.S., meeting 85% of their needs through with green energies.\n4. Spreading the Word\nIn 2007, Nokia realized that as its devices spread across the world, so too could its influence. The company, which has now served over a billion customers, began including labels reminding consumers to unplug their chargers from the wall when not in use. Conrad says each user would hopefully save one dollar's worth of energy each year for device standby. \n\"If you can get people to unplug, then you're talking about a billion dollars of energy,\" says Conrad. \"We've got this information device, why not try to spread some information to influence customers to make better choices?\"\n5. Developing Partnerships\n\n\nIn 2007, Google and Intel started the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, a non-profit consortium of consumers, businesses and other organizations dedicated to meeting certain energy usage targets. Cisco, Samsung, Microsoft and hundreds of other companies have joined the program, which is partnered with the World Wildlife Foundation. \"It's about asking questions, like how can we make computers, servers and server farms more efficient,\" explains Intel's Niekerk. \nAnother such group of almost 20 leading tech companies is the Digital Energy Solutions Campaign, which works to advance policies to drive sustainable economic growth. \"We say to governments around the world, how are we going to grow your economy and reduce your climate change emissions,\" says Niekerk. \"How can we make countries with more energy efficient to postpone climate change?\"\nDoes your company promote sustainability? Let us know in the comments below.\nSeries supported by Fedex\n\n\u00A0\nThe Commerce With a Conscience Series is supported by Fedex. FedEx does more than shipping. They offer solutions like transporting heart valves to those in need and helping entrepreneurs bring their ideas to life. See how.\nImage courtesy of iStockphoto, NREY"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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