Look who's been featured by HP

HP, the world's largest IT company and leading provider of PCs and workstations, has showcased Guidance on its latest YouTube video campaign. Guidance has been featured alongside HP clients' DreamWorks and Viacom for using energy-efficient HP hardware to reduce our carbon footprints.

Since 2008, Guidance has been working with HP to promote green computing and other eco-friendly solutions as alternatives to traditional computer hardware. Guidance uses HP's energy-optimized ProLiant® servers (DL360 G5 and DL380 G5), with the low-voltage Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® Processor L5420 to offer green hosting solutions to clients. In addition to energy-efficient monitors and desktop solutions, Guidance has also reduced the company's internal energy consumption by virtualizing most of the company’s development environment.

Click on the image below to watch the short video clip HP posted on YouTube. Enjoy!

Guidance Green turns 4!

Our environmental committee, Guidance Green, is turning 4 next month! Since 2007, Guidance Green has spearheaded our company’s efforts in reducing its carbon footprint and overall impact on the planet’s natural resources.

To celebrate our fourth anniversary, Guidance is hosting an event on Wednesday, March 9th from noon to 1pm at our corporate headquarters in Marina del Rey. Join us as we review our green accomplishments over the last four years, along with catered food, eco trivia, contests, prizes and much more.

You can also enter our “From Trash to Treasure” contest for a chance to win cool cash prizes. Bring something you have created out of recycled items and turn your trash into cash!



For more information, contact us at green@guidance.com.

Hope to see you on the 9th!

---

Debbie E.
Guidance Green

Come to the Green Side. They Have Pancakes.

My foray into Guidance Green started with the promise of an IHOP breakfast. As I enjoyed my blueberry banana nutty grain deliciousness at the Guidance Green Committee meeting in late January, I learned a few things.

For example, you can recycle batteries here at Guidance. As a matter of fact, we'll recycle all your household eWaste and hazardous materials - oil, paints, pesticides, electronics and more. I've been wondering what to do with this bag of old CFL light bulbs. Now I know, and I'll be bringing them by here soon. There's a full list of things you can recycle above the mail cubbies in the kitchen.

There is a Guidance Green section on Guidance Connect (Guidance's Intranet), and a section on the Guidance website. Both of these pages have great information about reducing environmental impact, individually and as a company.

Guidance Green's fourth anniversary is coming up in March. Guidance made a commitment to reducing energy waste, reusing items, recycling as much as possible and expanding the Guidance Green mission into the community back in 2007. Check out this blog post by Debbie to learn more about our upcoming anniversary event --
Guidance Green Turns 4!.

I am excited about being part of Guidance Green. As a member of the Guidance Green committee, I can offer ideas to help make Guidance as environmentally-friendly as possible. Working for a company that has this kind of philosophy is important to me. If you would like to be a part of Guidance Green, just drop us a note at green@guidance.com. It's a chance to do some good things and - if you are lucky - enjoy some pancakes.

---

Rachele M.
Guidance

Opting out of Yellow Pages (Guidance Green)

Yellow Pages is doing things right! Their books are made from outdated directories, with non-toxic inks, dyes and adhesives, and not from freshly cut trees. They have taken proactive measures to decrease their carbon footprint. But even so, I have no need for their phone books (what’s the Internet for?!). And chances are you don’t need yours either.

So, I went online to find out if there was a way to opt-out from receiving the phone book – or phone books (I receive about 5 of them every year!). And surely enough, there is. The site is called YellowPagesOptOut.com and it provides plenty of information on how to opt-out from receiving the books and how to recycle the ones you already have at home. They also have an interesting Resources section with links and additional information on Reducing, Reusing and Recycling, including DMAchoice, an online tool developed by the Direct Marketing Association to help individuals manage mail such as credit offers, catalogs, magazine offers and other mail offers.

I hope you find the site useful. Stay green!

---

Gabby M.
Guidance Green

‘Green Your Holidays with Guidance Green’ is Back!

For the third consecutive year, our environmental committee, Guidance Green, is inviting So Cal neighbors to green their holidays by joining us in donating gently-used items to charities. In doing so, we will bring some holiday cheer to people in need while helping to keep these still useful items form ending up prematurely at the local landfill.

Gently-used clothing, accessories and shoes, as well as brand new toys, will be donated to the Venice Homeless Shelter. This year, we are also collecting new and gently-used jackets, coats, warm socks, hats, scarves, gloves and warm pajamas for children 0 to 10 years old to donate to the Kozy Klothes for Kids organization.

Items can be dropped off at Guidance’s headquarters – 4134 Del Rey Avenue in Marina del Rey, CA. We will be accepting donations until Friday, December 10, allowing us to deliver these to both charities in time for the holidays.

If you have any questions, please contact us at green@guidance.com.

Guidance Green helps restore beauty to a local beach

The Guidance Green team strikes again! For the fourth consecutive year, the Guidance Green team helped to clean up the beaches in Southern California. For a second time, we returned to Mother’s Beach in Marina del Rey on Sunday, November 14th.

Here are some of our stats from our cleanup:

• We collected over 10 pounds of trash


• The most common piece of trash was bottle tops


• We even found a golf ball!

After our busy morning we relaxed and enjoyed the California sun while enjoying BBQ hot dogs.

Check out pictures of our beach cleanup on our Facebook page.

We’ll keep you posted on our next beach cleanup. We hope to see you there!

Guidance employees partner with Tierra Miguel Foundation farm

Our two committees, Guidance Green and A Healthy Guidance, have teamed up to offer a unique opportunity to all Guidance's employees and contractors who sign up to participate in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.



CSAs are communities of individuals who pledge support to a farm -- in Guidance's case, the Tierra Miguel Foundation -- so that the farmland becomes the community's farm, with the growers and the consumers providing mutual support and sharing the risks and benefits of food production. Members or "share-holders" of the farm pledge in advance to cover the anticipated costs of the fram operation and the farmer's salary. In return, they receive shares in the farm's bounty throughout the growing season, as well as satisfaction gained from reconnecting to the land and participating directly in food production.

Tierra Miguel Foundation will provide us with organic, locally-grown, seasonal, fresh and nutritous produce delivered every Wednesday directly to Guidance. The commitment per person is 10 weeks @ $250. Each week, for the $25 invested, each participating employee will receive a box of 15 pounds of a mix of produce, including vegetables, herbs, and fruits. This is a great deal for local, certified organic produce!

To learn more about Tierra Miguel Foundation, please go to http://tierramiguelfarm.org/.

Here is to healthy eating!

---

Sam G. & Debbie E.
Guidance