How Randeep Somel of Communications and Sustainability, Iron Mountain Is Helping to Promote Sustainability and Climate Justice
An Interview With Monica Sanders
Communicating with data: Data is lifeblood when thinking about sustainability. The more you know about your impact, the better equipped you are to make decisions. Knowing what represents a good or bad activity and how to find alternatives will equip people to make better choices.
According to the University of Colorado, “Those who are most affected and have the fewest resources to adapt to climate change are also the least responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions — both globally and within the United States.” Promoting climate justice is an incredibly important environmental responsibility that is slowly becoming more and more recognized. In this interview series, we are talking to leaders who are helping to promote sustainability and climate justice. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Randeep Somel, VP, Global Head of Communications and Sustainability at Iron Mountain.
Randeep Somel leads Iron Mountain’s sustainability efforts across the enterprise, which include net-zero emission targets, as Vice President, Global Head of Communications and Sustainability. Previously, he had a 17-year career in the asset management industry at M&G Investments, where he launched and led its Global Climate Solutions strategy and helped in framing the process for the impact investing equity fund range, while chairing the ESG integration process. Somel is an author of articles and blogs on sustainability and impact investing and has been a regular speaker and writer for worldwide media including Bloomberg, CNBC, BBC, The FT, The WSJ.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?
I’m the eldest of two boys and grew up in the West Midlands in the UK. The pressure of being the eldest — even if it’s only one-and-a-half years’ difference — can bring out the competitive nature in me at times. You’ll see why this matters below.
Everyone has a cataclysmic moment or marker in their life which propels them to take certain actions, a “why”. What is your why?
The competitiveness with my brother followed me as I pursued a degree in economics and joined a global asset management firm — however, the competitiveness gave way to a drive and curiosity that still lives on today. The joy of my role centered on how I could assess different businesses, industries, and management teams around the world to understand how economies work and how companies generate value, provide employment, and reinvent themselves to grow.
One of my first sectors as an analyst was metals and mining. I found the world growing around me but with finite resources. The rate of growth and the level of resources available didn’t, and still don’t, marry up. Looking back through history, however, there is not a time when things haven’t gotten better. In terms of sustainability, we can keep this in mind and know that a better future is planned by starting now.
My passion for sustainability has been inspired by the companies delivering on projects that are making a real difference, because when the business grows — it’s for the benefit of everyone. Learning that, my “ah-ha” moment came by way of realizing I could help affect positive change to impact generations. The best businesses understand the dichotomy of how efforts executed now will affect the future, and I’m lucky to work for one such company today: Iron Mountain. As a sustainable organization, Iron Mountain will be relevant beyond the next quarter and thrive for many more years for generations to come — and it’s an honor to help make that possible.
You are currently part of leading an organization that is making a difference for our planet. Can you tell us a bit about what you and your organization are trying to change?
As the world’s population grows there are three secular tailwinds to consider when making a difference for our planet:
- The Data Age: The volume of data being created is expected to grow from 64 zettabytes in 2020 to 181 zettabytes in 2025. To bring this growth into context, 1 zettabyte is the equivalent of 250 billion DVDs.
- Mineral Scarcity: There’s growing demand but declining supply. In fact, the equivalent of three world-class copper mines is being consumed annually, and new deposit discoveries peaked in 1996.
- GHG emission reductions and resource efficiency: Our collective aim to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 are trying to be realized by organizations across the world.
Working for a company of sizable impact with decades of experience in this space has resulted in tangible efforts that have — and will — continue to address both the tailwinds and the associated challenges listed above.
The Paris Climate Accord calls for net-zero emissions by 2050. Iron Mountain’s efforts were tracking well against this target, and we have therefore revised our goal for net-zero emissions to be achieved by 2040. Despite growing our business, we have made a sizable reduction in our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, helped by our transition to renewable energy use, which accounts for over 80% of our total enterprise-wide electricity consumed today.
As the amount of data grows and organizations continue the transition to cloud computing, our Iron Mountain Data Center business remains well placed. Not just from a growth perspective but also for environmental sustainability. All our data centers around the world are powered by 100% renewably sourced electricity and the facilities are all ISO 14001 certified, adhering to the highest environmental management standards.
We have moved some of our U.S. facilities to 24/7 carbon free energy, tracking hourly usage for customers and comparing it to Iron Mountain’s hourly usage demonstrates a future of how we can help customers transition to an improved carbon free energy supply.
Our asset lifecycle management (ALM) business also plays a significant role in helping our customers reduce their emissions by cutting the amount of electronic waste that is sent to landfill or for incineration, through the recycling and remarketing of IT assets. With our experience, we help customers elevate their IT practices to help maximize efficiency, reduce risk, increase competitive advantage, and exceed sustainability goals. Many of the materials we help keep in the economic system by either recycling or remarketing electronic waste are crucial to the clean energy transition.
I’m proud of how Iron Mountain is fully committed to reducing its own environmental footprint — and how, as a customer-led organization — we are positioned to provide products and services that help our customers reduce their emissions. Iron Mountain is uniquely positioned; we have the scale, distribution and impact to affect positive change beyond our own operations.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
Affecting demonstrable, global change is possible because of Iron Mountain’s positive culture, which begins with the senior leadership team and permeates through the organization. When I first started my career, I assumed a strong organizational culture could be found in any company. But this is not always the case. As I gained experience throughout my career, I recognized more and more how important culture is to the success of a business and how inextricably linked they are.
I don’t have a specific story to share, but rather want to call out important key tenets to implementing a strong culture when leading your teams — including how good leaders must be aware of their blind spots and build a management team with diverse skill sets to fill those gaps.
- Collaborative work environment: an organization’s leadership must live the values of its culture. How senior management leads will impact how employees behave. At Iron Mountain, leadership is collaborative and every person — no matter the level — is friendly and helpful. No challenge is insurmountable when faced together.
- Communication within the organization: With ~25,000 employees across 60 countries, no communication is too small. Iron Mountain’s CEO William Meaney not only encourages staff to communicate and collaborate — but leads by example, regularly hosting town halls that give our people the opportunity to hear more about the vision of the business and provide an opportunity to ask him questions. A truly global company doesn’t just mean a company that sells products and services globally. Rather, communication and collaboration happen globally; at Iron Mountain, people are cared for, and talent exists and thrives worldwide — which results in mindshare being possible regardless of level, position, or location.
- Supporting our communities: The communities in which we operate at Iron Mountain are very important to us. Our communities support our people and our operations and we in turn support them. Our program, “Moving Mountains” is just one example where our employees are given time to volunteer up to two days per year to support charitable or community initiatives.
None of us can be successful without some help along the way. Did you have mentors or cheerleaders who helped you to succeed? Can you tell us a story about their influence?
I am fortunate to always have had the opportunity to work with good people. Including in previous roles, where I worked with diverse and experienced team members who were always very happy to impart their knowledge to a younger, less experienced colleague. One was a former business consultant who worked with companies around the world to help improve their operations and bottom line. Second, a mathematician and former forensic auditor, who was able to scrutinize company financial statements and really understand how a business was performing. And third, was a sustainability expert from Denmark, who shared great knowledge from working with institutions that were very early leaders in this field.
Every day was a new lesson in understanding how companies developed, grew, and thrived, and how the business world worked. I also had the privilege of meeting the CEOs of countless blue-chip companies and the wealth of knowledge I gained from these interactions has proved invaluable. I learned a great deal in my 18 years working for an investment manager that I felt almost like I’ve worked closely with many different companies across sectors. I’ve been able to bring this experience into my new role at Iron Mountain.
Thank you for that. Let’s now move to the central part of our discussion. Let’s start with a basic definition of terms so that everyone is on the same page. What does climate justice mean to you? How do we operationalize it?
Let’s start this answer on a micro level: unsustainable activities by an individual may have a small local negative impact but they wouldn’t necessarily think that there were wider implications because of their actions. At a macro level: if you add up all these small activities, they begin to have far-reaching impacts outside of one’s own community and country, and may also leave future generations in much worse situations than they would otherwise have been in.
No one understood that better than Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, the father of sustainability; he coined the term and put sustainable development on the international agenda. He is known for saying: “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
To me, that is what climate justice is — being conscious of our behaviors that will have an impact on others and taking positive action to minimize our impact on the planet. At Iron Mountain we believe a sustainable future is only possible through collaboration. When we make commitments together — with our customers, suppliers, and the communities where we operate — we can not only multiply our efforts but can also make sustainable behaviors more accessible and achievable. This is how we operationalize climate justice.
Science is telling us that we have 7–10 years to make critical decisions about climate change. What are three things you or your organization are doing to help?
Getting to net zero is by no means easy. Given Iron Mountain’s global scale, we must be good stewards of the environment:
- Iron Mountain is working towards achieving net zero emissions by 2040, 10 years ahead of the Paris Climate Accord
- We will maintain 100% renewable electricity for our data center business and aim to achieve 90% renewable electricity use corporate wide by 2025
- By 2040, we will work towards zero waste in all our operations.
Are there three things the community, society, or politicians can do to help you in your mission?
Collaboration between all these entities is a must to achieve a more sustainable world. Iron Mountain is collaborating with key stakeholders in the following ways:
- Iron Mountain is part of EV100, a global initiative bringing together forward-looking companies committed to accelerating the transition to electric vehicles. As part of a larger group, we can effect more change than being a single organization. Whether that be our economic power in encouraging manufacturers to build more electric vehicles. Or as part of lobbying efforts with utilities, municipalities, suppliers, and governments to accelerate the build out of charging infrastructure.
- We are also members of RE100, a global corporate renewable energy initiative bringing together hundreds of large and ambitious businesses committed to 100% renewable electricity. Together, we form a much bigger partnership to lobby electricity companies, utilities, installers, and others to advocate for change. “100” seems to be the critical mass for collaborators to take notice as it’s in everyone’s economic and social interest to join together.
- Pushing boundaries of what we can all do next:
- As a Fortune 1000 company, Iron Mountain announced its new 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy (CFE) solution that tracks and matches renewable electricity usage on an hourly basis. As a global leader in innovative storage, data center infrastructure, asset lifecycle management, and information management services — we can bring customers together to realize:
- It matters where and when clean energy is generated, as it’s the future of clean energy procurement in support of decarbonization.
- It’s important to focus on how 24/7 CFE can be driven at scale.
- How ‘over-procurement’ of CFE is necessary today to get all the hours needed around the clock — and energy storage will help minimize this and add real value to the grid.
How would you articulate how a business can become more profitable by being more sustainable and more environmentally conscious? Can you share a story or example?
Over the long term, sustainable business practices help to reduce costs not increase them.
There are many examples of where increased use of renewable electricity helps to cut business costs and improve competitiveness — as well as reducing GHG emissions.
In the ALM services we provide for our customers, we take away their older and unneeded IT equipment. This equipment is then kept in the economic cycle by being remarketed or recycled. This not only helps reduce our customers’ GHG emissions footprint, but they also generate capital from the resale or recycling of their property.
Regulation is also catching up — particularly in areas like recycling and what goes to landfills; so together, we can stay ahead of the curve.
This is the signature question we ask in most of our interviews. What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started promoting sustainability and climate justice” and why? Please share a story or example for each.
- Definition of sustainability: We need to understand what the definition is. Depending on who you speak to in the world — whether they are in Oslo, Norway or in Texas, US — their experiences of sustainability can be different.
- Technology plays an important role in climate justice: No one wants a lower quality of life as a result of being more sustainable. We need leaders in all industries paving the way for change and innovation.
Technology already has and will continue to play a very important role in producing new innovations and improving efficiencies.
3. Think beyond “What I do doesn’t count”: That is ALL that counts. We need to change mindsets. One carton or piece of paper — if multiplied hundreds, thousands, or millions of times — will accumulate. Alleviating pollution one person at a time has the potential to make a large impact.
4. Communicating with data: Data is lifeblood when thinking about sustainability. The more you know about your impact, the better equipped you are to make decisions. Knowing what represents a good or bad activity and how to find alternatives will equip people to make better choices.
5. People generally want to “do good”: No one sets out to harm the environment. Knowing that, we need to appeal to people’s better natures. If you equip them with information, they can make more informed, positive decisions because they will know “it’s a good thing to do.”
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them.
Bill Gates would be an interesting person to meet. He is a visionary who has created a software ecosystem that has touched the lives of so many people on Earth. He has used his ability and resources for environmental and societal good — for instance, with malaria eradication and dedicated climate work. It’s been amazing to see someone who built a corporate behemoth starting from a garage now step away from a thriving organization to channel his efforts to more philanthropic activities. The Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation has also influenced others such as Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway, to support philanthropic activities with their resources.
How can our readers continue to follow your work online?
Those interested in learning more about Iron Mountain’s sustainability efforts can visit: Iron Mountain’s Sustainability page. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn, too.
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
About the Interviewer: Monica Sanders JD, LL.M, is the founder of “The Undivide Project”, an organization dedicated to creating climate resilience in underserved communities using good tech and the power of the Internet. She holds faculty roles at the Georgetown University Law Center and the Tulane University Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy. Professor Sanders also serves on several UN agency working groups. As an attorney, Monica has held senior roles in all three branches of government, private industry, and nonprofits. In her previous life, she was a journalist for seven years and the recipient of several awards, including an Emmy. Now the New Orleans native spends her time in solidarity with and championing change for those on the frontlines of climate change and digital divestment. Learn more about how to join her at: www.theundivideproject.org.
How Randeep Somel of Communications and Sustainability, Iron Mountain Is Helping to Promote… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.