Global
Corporate social responsibilities

Sustainable Transportation and Shipping

In addition to setting high standards for sustainable manufacturing practices, Teradata conserves resources in the way our products are packaged and shipped.

In 2007, Teradata logged 280,000 miles on the highways of America delivering our product to our customers' data centers. All shipments were ground-based; Teradata did not ship any products to U.S. customers by air.

Teradata has worked with our manufacturing suppliers to implement further environmentally friendly programs regarding Teradata equipment, including the reuse of crates and pallets, the recycling of other shipping materials (such as cardboard and plastic), and the use of bulk reusable packaging for drives, controllers and drive modules for use with Teradata systems — reducing packaging waste by up to 45%.

Starting in 1999, Teradata technical manuals are no longer printed and shipped with products, but instead available as electronic print-on-demand documents. Instead of shipping the equivalent of 1,005 trees' worth of paper annually, we now ship around 25.

Wood — A Material Whose Time Has Come — Again

Our products ship out in wood crates; the volume of each shipping crate is 5 cu. feet. In 2003, we started to reuse these crates, and since this program was instituted, we have recycled over 850 crates.

With the release of the Teradata Purpose-Built Platform family, we were able to decrease the data center floor space required for our products and were also able to reduce the need for associated product packing. The shipping packaging is likewise significantly reduced. Since Teradata products are shipped in large wood crates, the savings from the new Teradata product is equal to 20 cu. feet of wood per system.

Working with Suppliers to Reduce Impact

Teradata has established a cooperative Vendor-Managed Inventory (VMI) program with our Tier One suppliers to locate equipment for sale that is in close proximity to our final assembly locations. The VMI program also requires suppliers to ship bulk quantities of product to local hubs near our manufacturing site, rather than discrete customer shipments. This not only reduces our inventory costs, but also greatly reduces the environmental impact of our manufacturing operations.

Efficient Transportation Options

All Teradata U.S. logistics and U.S. ground transit partners are members of the SmartWay Carrier program. This allowed Teradata to become a SmartWay Transportation Partner. We seek to partner with committed environmental sustainable freight companies to move our products to our customers’ facilities. SmartWay is another great partnership where can reduce energy use and help provide for cleaner air. Learn more about the SmartWay program.