As talented as our employees are at their craft, there’s another side to them too. In a word: compassion. Our employees care. Not just about each other and their families, but their communities as well.

Founded in 1969, AMD has a proud history of supporting communities where its 11,000-plus employees live and work around the world. In all, AMD has active involvement programs in 17 communities in Canada, China, India, Malaysia, Singapore and the United States.

What does involvement mean? It means contributing modest company charitable dollars to nonprofit organizations supporting education and other issues pertinent to each community, such as hunger, the environment and disaster relief. It means enabling and encouraging our employees to volunteer as teams to distribute food, pick up trash, donate blood, plant trees, landscape parks and build homes, among a variety of other community service projects. It means employees donating thousands of dollars to nonprofit organizations which are then matched by AMD to double the impact.

In 2011, more than 1,500 AMD employees recorded 12,693 hours of volunteer service at 253 company-sponsored events, a 5-percent increase in volunteer hours and a 28-percent uptick in company-driven events in our communities around the world.  That’s a lot of “sweat equity” to help strengthen communities.

Among those 1,535 employee volunteers, I’d like to focus on three in particular.

Cathy Roach, an AMD employee since 1993, has volunteered with the Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB) in Austin, Texas for 13 years. In 2010, the CAFB distributed 25 million pounds of food to 21 Central Texas counties, providing more than 20 million meals to needy families.  Ninety-eight percent of the work done at CAFB is done by volunteers like Cathy who, as a volunteer leader, instructs and guides other volunteers in the inspection and boxing of product before it is distributed to the community.

Cathy, an executive assistant who was chosen as AMD’s Volunteer of the Year, is grateful for the opportunity to serve her community.

“First and foremost, being a volunteer leader lets me meet a lot of really wonderful people and enjoy their company while helping feed hungry central Texans,” she says.  “Being a volunteer leader helps me enhance my facilitation skills as I train the volunteers on projects.  The opportunity has taught me to be more patient, tolerant, understanding and caring about the many volunteers that help CAFB strive to fulfill their mission.”

Jiao Jie, one of two AMD Volunteer of the Year finalists, is a senior equipment engineer in Suzhou, China, where AMD employs more than 1,000 workers who support back-end manufacturing. Jiao’s volunteer passion is the ChengShan Program, which is a collaboration between AMD and the Suzhou Red Cross. The purpose of this program is to help low-income students finish their college studies. Jiao and her team successfully collected more than 300,000(RMB) in donations which will help more than 100 students complete their college degrees.

For Jiao, an engineer, her volunteer efforts not only helped students finish college and attain their career aspirations, but she also learned some valuable skills that helped her professionally.

“Leading the project and collaborating with many social channels also improved my communication and coordination skills, which benefits my daily working skills,” she says.

The second AMD Volunteer of the Year finalist, Mike Vance, is as inspiring as Cathy and Jaio. Based in AMD’s Bellevue, Washington office, where there are about 50 employees , Mike’s impact is felt more than 9,000 miles away in the Songea region of Tanzania in East Africa.

Mike, a Principal Member Technical Staff (PMTS) on the Microsoft Interface team who started at AMD in 1990, has used his IT and video production skills to help bring computer access to a community of orphans in Songea and to publicize the needs of the community through his videos.

AIDS, malaria and poor sanitation have created a large number of orphans that overwhelm the ability of this impoverished region to provide adequate care.  Mike serves on the board of the nonprofit Songea’s Kids which helps serve 64 orphans assigned to its non-governmental organization (NGO) partner, Jirani Mwema by Songea Child Welfare. With assistance from the NGO, Mshangano Village leaders and the Songea Municipal and Regional government officials, Songea’s Kids is moving forward with plans to build the Hope Village orphanage to support 160 children, as well as provide facilities vitally needed by all the poor children of Mshangano Village.

“It has been fantastic to work with a radically different culture, and it provides a great perspective on the needs and capabilities of a country that I used to only know from geography lessons,” Mike says of his experience.  “I can really appreciate the challenges of bringing a poor society into the digital age.  It has helped me understand how to bring appropriate technology to address people’s needs.”

From designing billion-transistor chips to feeding the hungry, our talented and caring employees are what make me proud of my company.  It’s the AMD way.

Ward Tisdale is Director of Global Community Affairs for AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

to discuss youth game design and game-based learning!
Date: February 22, 2012
Time: 4:15 p.m. – 5:15 p.m. ET

Stay up-to-date on the #STEMchat conversation by following @changingthegame & @jason_koebler!
Use the #STEMchat hashtag during the chat so you don’t miss anything.
#STEMchat conversation panelists include @STEMChallenge, @CooneyCenter, @GetGameSmart, @pbskids, @ELineMedia and @ErikatESA.

Visit the National STEM Video Game Challenge website for more information about the Challenge.

On or about every 10 minutes, one randomly selected registered participant will receive exciting gifts from the participating organizations.

See Official Rules for Entry Below

To register, please email Danielle.Meister@Edelman.com your name and Twitter handle, and follow @changingthegame and @jason_koebler.

————————

U.S. News & World Report and AMD STEM Challenge TweetChat and Sweepstakes
OFFICIAL RULES

No purchase required to enter or win. A purchase will not increase your chances of winning. Maximum one (1) prize per household, e-mail address, or Twitter handle.

1. Eligibility:  U.S. News & World Report and AMD STEM Challenge TweetChat and Sweepstakes (the “Sweepstakes”) is open only to legal residents of fifty (50) United States (including the District of Columbia) and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are at least eighteen (18) years of age as of the start of the Entry Period (defined below). Employees of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Edelman, PBS, The Cooney Center, E-Line Media, ESA and Microsoft, and each of their subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, directors, employees and agents, and the immediate family (defined as parents, children, siblings and husband or wife) of each such employee, together with those with whom such employees are domiciled, are not eligible to participate.

2. Sponsor: The Sweepstakes is sponsored by Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., One AMD Place, PO Box 3453, Sunnyvale, CA 94088-3453 (“AMD” or “Sponsor”).

3. Agreement to Official Rules: Participation in the Sweepstakes constitutes entrant’s full and unconditional agreement to and acceptance of these Official Rules and the decisions of the Sponsor, which are final and binding.  Winning a prize is contingent upon fulfilling all requirements set forth herein.

4. Entry Period: The Sweepstakes begins on February 22, 2012 at 3:15 p.m. Central Daylight Time (CDT) and ends on February 22, 2012 at 4:15 p.m. CDT (the “Entry Period”).  Sponsor’s computer will be the official timekeeping device for the Sweepstakes.

5. Create and Submit an Entry: To participate in the Sweepstakes, entrants must:

a. Have a valid Twitter account and be a follower of the @changingthegame and @jason_koebler Twitter handles

b. Participate in the “U.S. News & World Report and AMD STEM Challenge TweetChat and Sweepstakes” at http://twitter.com/changingthegame and http://twitter.com/jason_koebler by posting a tweet during the Entry Period (each tweet is considered an “Entry”).  To be eligible, the Entry must meet each of the following criteria:

1. The Entry must contain the #STEMchat hashtag;

2. The Entry must contain a bit.ly link to these Official Rules

3. The Entry must comply with the following Content Guidelines:

i. The Entry may not contain material that violates or infringes another’s rights, including but not limited to privacy, publicity or intellectual property rights, or that constitutes copyright or trademark infringement.  Any content that appears in the Entry must be entirely original, created and performed solely by the Participants, or be in the public domain.  Use of any content that is not original or in the public domain may result in disqualification of the Entry, in the Sponsor’s sole discretion.

ii.The Entry must not in any way disparage Sponsor, any of its products or services, the Promotion, or any person or party affiliated with the Promotion, or alternatively appear to promote any direct competitor of Sponsor;

iii.The Entry may not contain text or imagery that is inappropriate, indecent, obscene, hateful, tortious, defamatory, slanderous or libelous (as determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion);

iv.The Entry must not include threats (expressed or implied) to any person, place, business, or group;

v. The Entry must not invade privacy rights or any other rights of any person, business, or group, and the Entry must not name or depict any third party without his/her permission;

vi.The Entry must not contain text or imagery that promotes bigotry, racism, hatred or harm against any group or individual or promotes discrimination based on race, gender, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age; and

vii. The Entry must not contain material that is unlawful, in violation of or contrary to the laws or regulations in any jurisdiction where the Entry is created.

Limit: One (1) entry per person or Twitter handle.  Entries in excess of this limit and/or Entries that do not comply with the above Guidelines will not be eligible to win a prize.  Any attempt by any participant to submit more than the stated number of Entries by using multiple/different email addresses, Twitter handles, identities, or any other method will void that participant’s Entries and that participant may be disqualified.  Use of any automated system to participate is prohibited and will result in disqualification. In the event of a dispute as to any Entry, the authorized account holder of the email address used to register for the Promotion will be deemed to be the participant.  The “authorized account holder” is the natural person assigned the email address used to register for the Twitter account, as that is determined by the Internet access provider, online service provider or other organization responsible for assigning email addresses for the domain associated with the submitted address.  The potential winner may be required to show proof of being the authorized account holder.  Sponsor is not responsible for lost, late, incomplete, invalid, illegible or misdirected Entries, which may be disqualified, or for any error, human, technical or otherwise.  Sponsor reserves the right in its sole discretion to disqualify any individual it finds to be tampering with the operation of the Promotion or to be acting in violation of these Official Rules.

6. Winner Selection: Sponsor will select six (6) potential winners at random on or about February 22, 2012 (“Drawing Date”) from all eligible Entries received during the Entry Period.  Winners will be selected on or about every 10 minutes. Winner does not need to be present at the drawing to win.  Odds of winning depend upon the number of eligible entries.

7. Prize Notification and Delivery: Each potential winner will be notified by Twitter Direct Message (DM) after the Drawing Date.  Within five (5) days of receipt of the DM, each potential winner must reply with any requested information for the administration of the contest.  Potential winners may be required to sign and return to Sponsor, within ten (10) days of the date notice is sent, a confirmation of an Affidavit of Eligibility, Liability and Publicity Release (“Affidavit”) (except where prohibited) in order to claim his/her prize.  If a potential winner of any prize cannot be contacted, fails to respond to the DM within five (5) days, or fails to sign and return the Affidavit within the required time period (if applicable), he/she forfeits the applicable prize and the prize will be awarded to an alternate winner, selected by random drawing from among remaining eligible Entries.  Potential winner(s) from Canada may be required to correctly answer a mathematical skills-testing question without any assistance in order to be eligible to receive a prize.  The prize will be sent to a shipping address designated by entrant.  Allow eight (8) weeks for delivery.  Failure to comply with any term or condition in these Official Rules may result in disqualification at Sponsor’s sole discretion.  Potential winner(s) may waive their right to receive a prize, in which case an alternate winner will be selected in the manner described above.

8. Prizes: One grand prize winner will receive one (1) Kinect for Xbox 360. Approximately Retail Value $149.99 USD.  Prize is just the Kinect, not the underlying Xbox 360 system.Four participants will each receive one (1) prize pack that comprises of one (1) Cooney Center reusable bag, one (1) ESA t-shirt, one (1) AMD Global Giving Gift card for consumers to donate to the charity of their choice, one (1) AMD t-shirt and one (1) AMD USB drive. Approximate Retail Value $61 USD per prize pack. One teacher will receive one (1) Game Star Mechanic class subscription for a teacher. Approximate Retail Value $85 USD.

The total value of all prizes equals approximately $295.99 USD.  Prize values accurate as of February 10, 2012.  Prices and exchange rates may vary, and dealers may sell for less.  Additional terms and conditions of the gift card may apply.  Prize must be accepted as awarded and may not be transferred, substituted or redeemed for cash or otherwise, except at Sponsor’s sole discretion or as contemplated herein.  Sponsor reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater monetary value if the prize, or any component of the prize, cannot be awarded for any reason.  Sponsor is responsible only for prize delivery; not responsible for prize utility, quality or otherwise. Taxes and fees, if any, are the sole responsibility of prize winners.  If required, any applicable forms will be filed with the appropriate taxing authority.  Limit: no more than one (1) prize will be awarded per person or Twitter handle.

9. Release: By receipt of the prize, the winner agrees to release and hold harmless Sponsor, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Edelman, PBS, The Cooney Center, E-Line Media, ESA and Microsoft, and their respective subsidiaries, affiliates, suppliers, distributors, advertising/promotion agencies and each of their respective parent companies and each such company’s officers, directors, employees and agents (collectively, the “Released Parties”) from and against any claim or cause of action, including, but not limited to, damage to or loss of property, arising out of participation in the Sweepstakes or receipt or use or misuse of any prize.

10. Privacy and Publicity: Except as set forth herein, all information submitted by entrants in the Contest will be treated according to the Sponsor’s Privacy Policy and Twitter’s privacy policy.  Except where prohibited, participation in the Sweepstakes constitutes winner’s consent to Sponsor’s use of winner’s name, image, likeness, personal testimonial and city and country of residence for promotional purposes in any media or format,  worldwide, without further payment or consideration, including but not limited to posting winner lists online.

11. General Conditions: Sponsor reserves the right to terminate, amend, suspend or modify this Sweepstakes in whole or in part, at any time and without notice or obligation, if in Sponsor’s sole discretion, any factor interferes with its proper conduct as contemplated by these Official Rules.  Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, if, for any reason, the Sweepstakes is not capable of running as planned, including infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes beyond the control of Sponsor which corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of this Sweepstakes, the Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual who tampers with the entry process.  Any attempt by any person to deliberately undermine the legitimate operation of the Sweepstakes may be a violation of criminal and civil law, and, should such an attempt be made, Sponsor reserves the right to seek damages from any such person to the fullest extent permitted by law.  Sponsor’s failure to enforce any term of these Official Rules shall not constitute a waiver of that provision or of any other provision of these Official Rules.  In the event of a dispute as to any Entry, the authorized account holder of the Twitter account used to enter will be deemed to be the entrant.  The “authorized account holder” is the natural person who is assigned to an account or e-mail address by an Internet access provider, online service provider, or other organization responsible for assigning accounts or e-mail addresses.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any provision of these Official Rules shall not affect the validity or enforceability of any other provision.  If any provision of the Official Rules is determined to be invalid or otherwise unenforceable, then the Official Rules shall be construed in accordance with their terms as if the invalid or unenforceable provision was not contained therein.

12. Limitations of Liability: The Released Parties are not responsible, to the extent permitted by law, for:  (1) any incorrect or inaccurate information, whether caused by entrants, printing errors or omission or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Sweepstakes; (2) technical failures of any kind, including, but not limited to malfunctions, interruptions, or disconnections in phone lines or network hardware or software; (3) unauthorized human intervention in any part of the entry process or the Sweepstakes; (4) technical or human error which may occur in the administration of the Sweepstakes or the processing of entries; or (5) any injury or damage to property which may be caused, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, from entrant’s participation in the Sweepstakes or receipt or use or misuse of any prize.  If for any reason an entrant’s Entry is confirmed to have been erroneously deleted, lost, or otherwise destroyed or corrupted, entrant’s sole remedy is another Entry in the Sweepstakes provided that if it is not possible to award another Entry due to discontinuance of the Sweepstakes, or any part of it, for any reason, Sponsor, at its discretion, may elect to hold a random drawing from among all eligible entries received up to the date of discontinuance for any or all of the prizes offered herein.  No more than the stated number of prizes will be awarded. In the event that production, technical, seeding, programming or any other reasons cause more than the stated number of prizes as set forth in these Official Rules to be available and/or claimed  Sponsor reserves the right to award only the stated number of prizes by a random drawing among all legitimate, unawarded, eligible prize claims.

13.Disputes: Except where prohibited, entrant agrees that: (1) any and all disputes, claims and causes of action arising out of or connected with this Sweepstakes or any prize awarded shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action, and exclusively by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California or the appropriate California State Court located in Santa Clara County, California; (2) any and all claims, judgments and awards shall be limited to actual out-of-pocket costs incurred, including costs associated with entering this Sweepstakes, but in no event attorneys’ fees; and (3) under no circumstances will entrant be permitted to obtain awards for, and entrant hereby waives all rights to claim, indirect, punitive, incidental and consequential damages and any other damages, other than for actual out-of-pocket expenses, and any and all rights to have damages multiplied or otherwise increased.  All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules, or the rights and obligations of the entrant and Sponsor in connection with the Sweepstakes, shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of the State of California without giving effect to any choice of law or conflict of law rules (whether of the State of California or any other jurisdiction), which would cause the application of the laws of any jurisdiction other than the State of California.  Some jurisdictions do not allow for limitations of certain remedies or damages and so this provision may not apply to you.

14. Sweepstakes Results; Posting of Official Rules: A list of winners will be posted on http://twitter.com/changingthegame for thirty (30) days following the close of the Sweepstakes.  After that time, copies of the winner’s list may be obtained by submitting this request in writing to Sponsor and by including with that request a self-addressed, stamped envelope.  Requests should be sent to: Danielle Meister, Edelman, 250 Hudson Street, New York, New York, 10013.  Requests for winner’s lists must be received within four (4) months of the close of the promotion period.  Requests received after this time will not be honored.

©2012 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.  All rights reserved.  AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, and combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.  Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

A couple of years ago, I wrote a blog post on the evolution in sustainability thinking through the years. The take-home message then was that sustainability leadership is now synonymous with business leadership. Winning businesses accurately anticipate needs and develop products and services to position themselves for the future. This entails two distinct capabilities: accurately predicting trends and innovating to win.

If this sounds like “business 101,” it is. The difference today is that many of the mega trends point to sustainability challenges. The world population cresting seven billion last month served as a poignant reminder of the need to use resources more efficiently. At the same time, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise despite conservation efforts. With trends this obvious, businesses of all types are incorporating sustainability into their thinking. From the GE Ecomagination program to our recent launch of energy efficient AMD Opteron processors for data servers, companies are designing for greater levels of efficiency while continuing to deliver cutting-edge performance.

Hockey’s “great one,” Wayne Gretzky, was quoted saying, “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” This is the lesson for the leaders of tomorrow—sustainability or otherwise—who will be defined by their ability to design products and services that can compete on a different playing field—one that is defined by performance and efficiency.

In your opinion, what are the most significant sustainable business trends of the last decade?

When I started in this field, the dialogue was defined by antagonistic arguments over environmental regulation. While some of these battles persist today, the trend has moved from fighting over environmental regulations to incorporating sustainability into the design of products and services.

We saw this play out when we studied our accelerated processing unit (APU) and found that this new product conserves about 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions as compared to the previous generation of technology. What’s more, the study showed that about 80 to 90 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions from the lifecycle of a computer chip is associated with the use of the product.

Since millions of chips are used every day, this means that even small improvements in energy efficient design can have enormous environmental benefits. Gone are the days when sustainability leaders could get by just touting reductions in their own environmental footprint. Tomorrow’s leaders will be the innovators who design the products that deliver efficiency and performance to the end user.

When it comes to promising opportunities for sustainable business now and in the next five years, where are you placing your bets?

Performance per watt is the name of the game in computing technologies. This trend is both on an individual level, with more energy efficient computing solutions, and on the structural change of moving data from personal devices to the cloud. In both cases, the path is toward more computing performance per watt of power consumed. In addition to these trends, there is a healthy clean-tech market encompassing everything from alternative energy to smart power meters that depends on computing power.  As the world continues to stretch every watt of power, computing technology will play a central role.

Tim Mohin is the Director of Corporate Responsibility at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links sites and no endorsement is implied.

A couple of years ago, I wrote a blog post on the evolution in sustainability thinking through the years. The take-home message then was that sustainability leadership is now synonymous with business leadership. Winning businesses accurately anticipate needs and develop products and services to position themselves for the future. This entails two distinct capabilities: accurately predicting trends and innovating to win.

If this sounds like “business 101,” it is. The difference today is that many of the mega trends point to sustainability challenges. The world population cresting seven billion last month served as a poignant reminder of the need to use resources more efficiently. At the same time, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise despite conservation efforts. With trends this obvious, businesses of all types are incorporating sustainability into their thinking. From the GE Ecomagination program to our recent launch of energy efficient AMD Opteron processors for data servers, companies are designing for greater levels of efficiency while continuing to deliver cutting-edge performance.

Hockey’s “great one,” Wayne Gretzky, was quoted saying, “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” This is the lesson for the leaders of tomorrow—sustainability or otherwise—who will be defined by their ability to design products and services that can compete on a different playing field—one that is defined by performance and efficiency.

In your opinion, what are the most significant sustainable business trends of the last decade?

When I started in this field, the dialogue was defined by antagonistic arguments over environmental regulation. While some of these battles persist today, the trend has moved from fighting over environmental regulations to incorporating sustainability into the design of products and services.

We saw this play out when we studied our accelerated processing unit (APU) and found that this new product conserves about 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions as compared to the previous generation of technology. What’s more, the study showed that about 80 to 90 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions from the lifecycle of a computer chip is associated with the use of the product.

Since millions of chips are used every day, this means that even small improvements in energy efficient design can have enormous environmental benefits. Gone are the days when sustainability leaders could get by just touting reductions in their own environmental footprint. Tomorrow’s leaders will be the innovators who design the products that deliver efficiency and performance to the end user.

When it comes to promising opportunities for sustainable business now and in the next five years, where are you placing your bets?

Performance per watt is the name of the game in computing technologies. This trend is both on an individual level, with more energy efficient computing solutions, and on the structural change of moving data from personal devices to the cloud. In both cases, the path is toward more computing performance per watt of power consumed. In addition to these trends, there is a healthy clean-tech market encompassing everything from alternative energy to smart power meters that depends on computing power.  As the world continues to stretch every watt of power, computing technology will play a central role.

Tim Mohin is the Director of Corporate Responsibility at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links sites and no endorsement is implied.

The technology industry stands to make great gains by recruiting, developing and retaining women as a vital part of their teams. Not only is this statement backed by substantial research, but frankly, it also just makes good sense.

From a general perspective, when women are an integral part of any company, the diversity of thought and ideas at the table increases. A greater variety of perspectives and experiences can improve creativity and innovation, which is what the technology business is all about. Research reveals that progress and innovation may depend less on lone thinkers with high IQs and more on groups of diverse people working together and capitalizing on their individuality⁽¹⁾.

Now, let’s get more specific. In the U.S. alone, women influenced more than $90 billion of consumer electronic purchases in 2007⁽²⁾, and were the decision makers in 66% of personal computer purchases ⁽³⁾. And women are loyal to their technology – while 58% would ditch their TV if they had to get rid of one digital device, only 11% would ditch their laptop⁽⁴⁾. It stands to reason that with women making up such a large part of our target market, our workforce should include more women in product design, development and marketing.

Gender diversity provides the variety of perspectives and experiences that spark creativity, problem solving and innovation to propel our company and our industry forward. Recently, McKinsey Consulting performed a study which delved into why gender diversity matters.

One fact the study uncovered is that women excel in the competencies that will be most effective in addressing future challenges in a global workforce – things like participative decision making, clearly setting expectations and rewards, and developing people to take on increasing roles and responsibilities⁽⁵⁾.

AMD firmly believes that women bring a diversity of thought to the table that can help shape our future for the better. That’s why we created the AMD Women’s Forum (AWF) to build a respected and innovative company through the collaboration and contributions of women.

Formed in 2009, one of the first things the AWF did was investigate the major challenges facing women in the technology industry and at AMD specifically. Once those issues were defined, we worked to develop programs specific to the areas that would most help progress women within the organization.

Women in the technology industry face some unique challenges. For one, there is a lack of prominent female role models. This can make it challenging for a woman to envision herself at the head of the table. As well, women often lack mentors or sponsors to help them drive the self-awareness and skill development necessary to reach the top. Another common challenge is that of work/life integration. While some women have seemed to master this, many others still struggle with the “always on/always connected” work environment of a global organization.

Over the past two years, the AWF has developed programs specific to each of these barriers.  We have worked to drive visibility of our female leadership both inside and outside the company – through internal panel events featuring female leaders, industry speaking engagements, and increased public relations and external recognition of AMD women.  We addressed the strong need for mentoring with a program called AMD Mentoring Connections, which matches high-potential women with mentors from around the globe for the purposes of knowledge sharing and skill development. Because work/life integration is such a universal challenge, we have woven it throughout the programs.  We have invited industry experts on focus and balance into our AWF Speaker’s Series, asked our female leaders to discuss it in their newsletter features and online videos, and included it as one of the important competencies to develop within our mentoring program.

As a result of these efforts, women around the world are connecting, networking and developing in new and exciting ways. They are also paying it forward. Every woman that we reach through the efforts of the AWF makes a commitment to help others in their part of the business and their part of the world. We have seen incredible progress in two short years, and we look forward to seeing that progress translate into business results in the years to come.

Deb Nations is the Director, Global Diversity and Inclusion at AMD.Her postings are her own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites, and references to third party trademarks, are provided for convenience and illustrative purposes only.  Unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links, and no third party endorsement of AMD or any of its products is implied.

(1)      Scott Page, The Difference: How the power of diversity creates better groups, firms, schools, and societies (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007).
(2)     Source: Consumer Electronics Association, 2007
(3)     Source: Compiled by Marketing to Women Conference 2009
(4)     Source: Mindshare/Ogilvy & Mather
(5)     McKinsey & Company:  Women leaders, a competitive edge in and after the crisis. http://www.mckinsey.de/downloads/publikation/women_matter/women_matter_3_brochure.pdf

AMD is working on a cutting edge project that could revolutionize data center operations around the world by making them more energy efficient, cost effective, and environmentally sustainable.  And all this while helping to meet the rapidly growing global appetite for digital data.

Just how hungry is the world for data?  According to the digital data experts at the International Data Corporation (IDC), all of the data we humans generate with our computers, smartphones, and other digital devices was estimated at 1200 Exabytes in 2010 (1 Exabyte = 1 quintillion bytes or a million trillion bytes).  And IDC estimates the amount of data we generate annually will increase to an estimated 35,000 exabytes (35 zetabytes) by 2020.¹

A zetabyte is equivalent to the storage capacity of about 250 billion DVDs.² I’m not going to do the math, but suffice it to say that 35 Zetabytes is a whole lot of bytes.

Most of those bytes are computed, stored, routed, and otherwise processed in data centers around the world. And those data centers use a lot of energy to power servers, routers, and storage devices, as well as the cooling systems needed to keep them running smoothly 24-7-365 so we don’t experience any interruptions in the flow of data that we have come to depend on.

In fact, according to a recent study by Dr. Jonathan Koomey at Stanford University, between 2005- 2010 global data center energy use increased by 56%, and accounted for approximately 1.5% of total global energy use.  And here in the U.S., 2010 data center energy use is about 2% of all energy use, which represents a 36% increase since 2005.  That’s a lot of energy, and also a whole lot of carbon emissions as most of the energy generated to power our demand for digital data is carbon-based and that demand will continue to increase.

In short, the demand for data will continue to rise rapidly and, along with it, power consumption of the data center.  Every time somebody gets on Skype or uses a video conferencing service at the office, they are driving demand at data centers.

We have been working on reducing power consumption for the computer on your desk and the servers used in data centers for a long time here at AMD.  In addition to the fact that it is better for the environment, our engineers are focused on reducing power consumption for a number of reasons.  Reducing the power consumed for increasing levels of performance is important for extending battery life in mobile computers and lowering electric bills for servers and large data centers.  In other words, managing power consumption is essential for growing our business.

We believe this work is also the right thing to do for our planet, and this alignment of our business and environmental interests is a powerful combination for positive change. That is why we recently partnered with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), Clarkson University, HP, and others, to work on a data center solution that has the potential to significantly reduce energy use as well as carbon emissions from data centers.

This project, which is driven by AMD’s External Research Office, will create a distributed network of containerized data centers (such as HP’s energy efficient Performance Optimized Datacenter (POD) products) that are powered by carbon-free renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.  Co-locating these data centers next to wind turbines and solar arrays improves the efficiency of the power transmitted.  By linking these data centers with fiber optic data lines, information can be moved from a center where power may not be sufficient, to one where there is an abundance of alternative energy. For example, if a wind-powered data center was unable to operate due to low wind velocity; its workload could be transferred to a solar-powered data center that is getting plenty of sunshine.

It turns out that moving bytes on fiber optic lines is more efficient and cheaper than moving electricity on transmission lines, with the cost of fiber optic line installations between $10-30 thousand per mile compared to power transmission line costs of up to $1 million per mile.  That’s a tremendous savings for the power generator, as well as for utilities and data center operators.^{4, 5}

The first stage of the project is a feasibility study, led by the researchers at Clarkson and scheduled for completion in 2012.  The next stage is to build a physical demonstration project that will serve as a laboratory for testing different types of computer hardware, software, power supplies, energy storage and other equipment.  In time, we hope full scale networks will be built to serve individual facilities, cities, and regions.  We will keep you informed as we work towards “greening the cloud.”

Steve Kester is the Director of Government Relations and Regulatory Affairs at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites, and references to third party trademarks, are provided for convenience and illustrative purposes only.  Unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links, and no third party endorsement of AMD or any of its products is implied.

1. http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2010/05/04/digital-universe-nears-a-zettabyte/
2. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2011/jun/29/zettabyte-data-internet-cisco
3. http://www.analyticspress.com/datacenters.html
4. http://www.newamerica.net/files/nafmigration/21st_Century_Information_Superhighway.pdf
5. http://www.newamerica.net/files/nafmigration/21st_Century_Information_Superhighway.pdf

Green Teams

AMD’s Go Green program now embraces a lifestyle approach to environmental stewardship, promoting conservation onsite, at home, in the community and during commutes. A key element of that expansion was the decision to help form employee-led “Green Teams,” which are employee volunteer groups that take on environmental challenges and build awareness about environmental issues.

As of October 2011, there are 10 Green Teams at different AMD sites around the globe; 6 in North America and 4 in Asia, with several hundred members led by approximately 50 very dedicated Green Team leaders.  Examples of Green Team projects include:

• In Austin, TX the Green Team worked with the Facilities department on lighting reduction efforts and is organizing an “Energy Night Out” to identify conservation opportunities after business hours.
• The team in Hyderabad, India helped distribute reusable cups to employees and provided bicycles to ride between buildings.
• Other Green Team projects include building a hiking trail around campus, cleaning up trash in the street, holding employee conservation contests, hosting speaker “lunch-and-learns”, and much more.

Central Texas Sustainability Leadership Forum

AMD is also working with other organizations in Central Texas – such as Dell, Whole Foods, the City of Austin, Austin Community College and the University of Texas – to form the Central Texas Sustainability Leadership Forum.  This group  is working to network their green-minded employees with the goal of leveraging our individual efforts into even greater community involvement.

Environmental Excellence Awards

In 2011, AMD held its first annual “Employee Environmental Excellence Awards” to recognize AMD’ers with an outstanding commitment to environmental excellence. Winners were presented with a custom-engraved bamboo plaque for categories that included Green Team Leader, Commute Champion, Water Warden, Trash Talker, and Energizer.

…and Finally the Numbers

In the first half of 2011 (January – June):

• AMD’ers participating in Go Green avoiding more than 272,000[i] pounds of air pollution (carbon dioxide emissions – CO2e) by commuting with alternative transportation.
• Green Team members volunteered more than 350[ii] hours and completed 40 conservation and outreach initiatives.
• 96% of Green Team Leaders surveyed[iii] “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that “being able to contribute to a cause while at work improves their commitment to core job functions and to AMD.”

Stay tuned for even greater accomplishments and our teams of eco-minded employees take on their next challenges.

Justin Murrill is the Global Sustainability Manager at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites, and references to third party trademarks, are provided for convenience and illustrative purposes only. Unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links, and no third party endorsement of AMD or any of its products is implied.

[ii] Data on green team members volunteer hours and initiatives reported to, and compiled by Global Sustainability Manager.

[iii] Survey conducted in October 2011.  Data compiled by Global Sustainability Manager.

The National STEM Video Game Challenge is a video-game-design competition intended to motivate interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), learning among America’s young people by tapping into students’ natural passion for playing and making video games. Call for entries for this year’s National STEM Video Game Challenge opens on Tuesday November 15th.

According to the 2009 High School Survey of Student Engagement, a full two-thirds of American high school students report being bored in class every day. Yet, those same students who are tuning out in school are turning on to video games outside of school. The Pew Research Center found that approximately 97 percent of teens play some form of video games in their spare time. Research indicates that playing games provides some STEM skills, but when students create games, those skills can go up exponentially.

Winners in the Youth category last year made games about global warming, solving mathematical challenges, and sustainable ecosystems. In addition to mastering technical skills, they also gained a deeper understanding of the subject matter. These games demonstrate that youth will eagerly tackle difficult subjects when they can engage with the topics using video game design.

The enthusiasm from the kids when they talk about making games shows that video game development can be a powerful means to engage and educate students. If you don’t believe me, just take a look at the video from the youth winners.

AMD sponsors the Challenge each year because it parallels our signature education initiative, AMD Changing the Game. Both enable youth to develop their own games to tackle social issues, in a hands-on way, that makes STEM learning engaging and fun. In the process, they also learn problem solving, critical thinking, language skills, and teamwork.

This year’s Challenge was launched in collaboration with the Digital Promise, a new initiative created by the President and Congress, supported through the Department of Education is designed to unlock the promise of breakthrough technologies to transform teaching and learning. Sponsors of the Challenge include the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, E-Line Media, the Entertainment Software Association, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and CPB-PBS Kids-Ready-to-Learn Initiative. AMD is proud to be among this impressive group of forward-thinking organizations who understand that game design and STEM learning is a winning combination.

Building upon the success of last year’s challenge, additional prize streams have been added, including one for educators to encourage them to design video games for children that teach key STEM concepts and foster an interest in STEM subject areas. Many teachers already employ game-based learning and game design to keep students engaged in the classroom. With this competition they now have an avenue to win prize money by creating games that their peers could potentially utilize in classrooms everywhere, and that makes these teachers winners in my book.

Allyson Peerman is the President of the AMD Foundation. Her postings are her own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links sites and no endorsement is implied.

Shon walks me through the facility, quietly explaining how he grew up in the BGCA system in Austin, a smile punctuating his travel guide spiel every now and then. Happy that he’s able to give back, just like the staff in the Austin facility who kept him on the right path growing up. We talk of the mundane and the extraordinary, of operating hours and keeping gangs at bay among the youth who come to the center. Shon is low key and matter of fact. Pragmatic. Knowledgeable. Comfortable in his skin and easy to talk with. An enlightening conversation.

Turning right and moving down the hallway, things are slightly quieter at this end of the building, but only just. On the right is the computer lab, equipped and funded by AMD. It’s a strange feeling to walk into this lab. To know that our company has funded this room, these HP systems, paid for teachers and staff to help these kids not just play video games, but to learn something real, tangible, a skill–how to create a video game of their own—that may pay dividends down the road, may inspire one or two along a lifelong career path . . . . . And to learn about themselves of course. Maybe learn to listen to that voice in their head that pulls them toward wanting to know more about computers and technology. To get a glimpse of another world, one of possibility and challenge and . . . what? Hard work, no doubt. Maybe end up an engineer, designing products for a company like AMD one day. It could happen. The next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates might even come from here. Then how much would this lab be worth?

Some facts: AMD has been working with Boys & Girls Clubs of America since 2008. The AMD Foundation provides funding for Game Tech, a game design program and curriculum that offers Club members the opportunity to explore video game design and teaches systems thinking, introductory programming and problem-solving skills. It’s also designed to expose members to gaming career fields. We’re also planning to sponsor a game-design competition in BGCA’s Club Tech Digital Arts Festival in 2012; hopefully some of these kids from the Spring Branch unit will have a chance to participate. Since Game Tech was launched in early 2010, more than 15,000 youth have gone through the program. Not a bad thing.

This is the ninth computer lab we’ve funded so far; I imagine the others are similar, in California, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, Maryland, Texas and Washington, and I wonder who might be sitting in one of those other labs in front of a computer screen right now, thanks to AMD’s vision and commitment.

It’s a nice thought.

Tim Martin is Director, Public Relations at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links sites and no endorsement is implied.

Great statistics, but what does this have to do with sustainability?

According to a 2010 study by Hewitt Associates, it turns out that there is a strong correlation between engagement and socially and environmentally responsible organizations. It dawned on me that perhaps these employees are more engaged because they see their job as their cause. When your job is your cause, you are naturally motivated to work hard and innovate. Since sustainability is an important cause for a lot of employees (especially younger workers), it makes sense that the companies with world-class sustainability programs also have higher engagement scores.

So, if employee engagement is a top business priority and sustainability programs are a way to drive better engagement, there is a clear imperative to make sustainability a part of the work experience. The question is: How?

There are a number of innovative ways that companies are engaging their employees into their sustainability and CSR programs. Following are a few examples from AMD and other companies:

Green teams: These are groups of employee volunteers that work together to improve the environment at work and the local community. Mostly, these groups focus on greening the work environment but increasingly they are taking on bigger challenges and responsibilities to the point where green teams are becoming a recognized organizational structure at some companies. Company examples include:

• Outreach to customers: The eBay green team started in 2007 as a grassroots effort to green the workplace. They went from eliminating Styrofoam cups to prompting eBay to build a large solar array. Then they had an epiphany: involve their customers. In just six weeks, the Green team was 100,000 members strong, and now is pushing 225,000. This e-Bay team is harnessing the power of their online community to make the world smarter and greener.
• Dumpster days: In an effort to educate employees about waste reduction, the employees at North Carolina-based Burt’s Bees flipped over their dumpsters in the parking lot and had employees separate out the recyclable items. Trash destined for the landfill was divided into two categories — items that should have been recycled but were not, and garbage. With about five tons of stockpiled trash dumped onto the parking lot, employees donned Hazmat suits and dove in to find out what they could dig up. They saved approximately 2.8 tons of trash from landfills immediately and had a lasting impact of a 50 percent cut in waste, saving the company $25,000 per year.
• Biofeedback for buildings: At AMD, our new Lone Star campus is LEED Gold certified. While this certification means that the design features are amongst the greenest in the country, it does not guarantee that the people working in the building are always mindful of the environment. The AMD green team recently got a new and powerful tool to manage onsite energy use: Smart-e-building. This technology provides real-time feedback on the energy used in our offices. Armed with this technology, the AMD green team is planning to host an “energy night out” to find out which equipment is left on when people leave the office.

Beyond the Green Team: When working to engage your employees there are a range of causes that may appeal to them. Below are a few ideas that may appeal to your altruistic employees:

• Skills-based volunteering: The concept behind skills-based volunteering is to match the employee’s skill set and/or development needs to a volunteer opportunity. This idea is at the heart of the success of AMD’s Community Corps program, which racked up more volunteer hours than we had employees last year.
• Personal sustainability plans: Walmart, the world’s largest company with more than 2 million employees, offers each employee the opportunity to develop their own goals in a personal sustainability plan. Its global program, My Sustainability Plan (MSP), allows every associate to choose their own sustainability goals and track their progress.
• Micro-volunteering: The No. 1 reason people do not volunteer for a cause while at work is they do not have enough time. It turns out that most people do have enough time to volunteer, but that time is cut up into small chunks.  A company called sparked.com has figured out a way to take advantage of these smaller chunks of time with online volunteering that matches employees’ skills with nonprofit needs. Their program has been described as “crowdsourcing for the common good.”

Engaging employees in sustainability is a fast growing trend with significant business benefits. Not only will the employee who gets involved help others, but by working on their cause as part of their day job, they will provide benefits to their company’s bottom line.

Tim Mohin is the Director of Corporate Responsibility at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links sites and no endorsement is implied.