ActioNet on the Move and Getting Greener?

by Faye Newsham, Senior Technical Writer

ActioNet is always striving to move forward, make improvements, and serve our customers the best we can. As part of that effort, ActioNet’s Headquarters recently relocated. Our new location in Vienna, Virginia (right across from the Dunn Loring-Merrifield Metro) provides us with modern facilities, room to grow, and greater ability to grow greener.

ActioNet HQ is now located at:

Metro Place II
2600 Park Tower Drive
Suite 1000
Vienna, VA 22180

The phone and fax numbers remain the same. Call us at
703-204-0090 if you have any questions.

Lots of planning and coordination took place in preparation for our move. Management and staff alike were worried about technical services we provide being interrupted and hiccups that might occur. We were excited but wary in the last few days in the old space. Everyone experienced some mild inconvenience with humor and good will. Once everything was boxed up and the movers set to go, the technical moves began.

In the end, even we were surprised at how well coordinated and smooth our transition to our new office was. Our customers were not impacted at all. Services that had to be interrupted were back in place so quickly, that one customer was noted to say, "Great job guys!" Our Senior Systems Administrator, Brandon Esterle, was officially thanked and received an award for an outstanding job supporting the ActioNet HQ relocation. He and many others worked tirelessly before, during, and after the move to ensure every aspect of the technical and physical move went well. Everyone involved from Ashley Chen, ActioNet President and CEO, on down pitched in. Jeff Abish, Executive Vice President and CTO noted, "Our goal was to get everything moved and operational over a weekend. We shut down all systems and moved them on a Friday after business hours and had them up and running later in the evening. We were fully operational without missing a beat on Monday morning, ready to continue serving our customers and employees."

Some employees, like myself, got our first look at the new space when we officially cut the tape on Monday March 9th. Not only is the new space enjoyable and well set up, we’ve noted that it is helping us follow our own credo "Be Ever Green."

As our website says, "ActioNet is committed to continuous process improvement. We are never satisfied with the status quo and we are always looking for ways to do things more efficiently and environmentally friendly."

Like most efforts at ActioNet, going green is not just a saying it is a way of doing business the best way we know how. We had made a good start previously but now we’ve got some new things in place:

• Reducing emissions – ActioNet’s HQ is now conveniently located directly across the street from the Dunn Loring-Merrifield Metro station.
• When planning the space, we recycled the cubicles and furniture from our old offices to our new ones. Items that were no longer needed were recycled to the employees.
• The new space has lots and lots of windows. Not only is natural daylight a free source of lighting for the office, it has been proven to improve worker productivity and satisfaction.
• Special high-efficiency, low-­energy lighting has been installed throughout the offices.
• Only lights in used rooms stay on – and automatically go off after 10 minutes of non-use.
• All kitchen facilities provide durable dishes, mugs, and silverware as well as energy efficient, low-water use dishwashers which are run nightly using low phosphate soaps. Everyone is encouraged to use the dishes and bring their lunch in reusable packaging to eat in one of our well appointed kitchens (don’t forget, if you don’t drive somewhere for lunch, you are also saving energy and reducing pollution too!).
• Coffee, creamer, sugar, and other products are purchased in bulk rather than in individually wrapped packages which cuts down on packaging waste and landfill use.
• New office equipment and kitchen appliances are Energy Star qualified products to cut down energy use and pollution.
  We use recycled paper products such as printer paper, envelopes, and notebooks, and also have some newer items made from recycled materials such as pens and pencils. Were also looking into more recycled items such as sticky notes, additional items made from recycled materials, and soy-based printer inks.
• As part of our new office theme, ActioNet has multiple "Green Walls" and a dedicated conference room named the "Green Room."

Although we are excited about our new green abilities, we are also proud of the ones that we brought with us:

• ActioNet uses advertising materials in reusable folders that can be filled as needed. We print on demand so we don’t have to store a large number or throw away changed pages. We save on paper loss and the folders are easily repurposed by whoever receives them.
• All gift and promotional pens ActioNet gives out are refillable, keeping more materials out of landfills.
• When ActioNet sets up an exhibit we use durable, reusable signage and recyclable, reusable exhibit materials.
  Using online tools to replace paper ones… for example, whenever possible we keep files on computers instead of in file cabinets. Our office and most contracts plan meetings and schedule conference rooms using online calendar tools. We also use the Process Asset Library (PAL) to store all process documents for the company. Employees are encouraged to read and use most of these online.
• ActioNet has always provided commuter benefits for those employees who take Metro or local trains to get to work.

We know that we can always improve, whether it is a new office to better serve our customers or continuing to "Be Ever Green" to serve our communities in more and better ways.