COURIER photo/Gabriel Fenoy

Claremonter Larry Vertal was recently named a top 15 "innovtor and influencer" by Information Week magazine for his contribution in energy-efficient computing.

Claremonter pushes for energy efficiency among tech giants

Claremont has never been known as a hub for the tech industry. But one of industry’s leading figures works and lives right here in town and has been recognized for his efforts to bring energy efficiency to the information technology industry.

Larry Vertal, 55, was recently labeled by a leading tech industry publication, Information Week, as one of the industry’s 15 “innovators and influencers” to watch in 2008. The reason: Mr. Vertal, a senior strategist at chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), has helped bring set standards and practices on energy efficiency to the tech industry through his foundation of the “Green Grid” consortium.

Green Grid members, which includes several big names like Dell, Sun, Intel, IBM, Microsoft and Hewlett Packard, meet regularly to define regulations that will promote energy efficiency computing around the world.

“A corporation is fundamentally an entity in society that needs to have the same type of behavior as an individual citizen towards the society at large,” Mr. Vertal said. “As a corporate citizen in society, we have to focus on these types of issues much as individuals do.”

The impact can be profound. Mr. Vertal cited a 2005 study which found that large data storage and processing centers run by major firms like Google, Microsoft and financial companies were consuming about $7.3 billion worth of electricity. That equates to roughly two percent of electricity consumption worldwide.

Aside from the consortium, Mr. Vertal also oversees all sustainability issues at AMD. The chipmaker has “a lot of street credibility” among tech corporations, Mr. Vertal said, for leading the way on green living in the corporate world.

COURIER photo/Gabriel Fenoy

One AMD facility in Texas occupied by some 3000 employees runs completely on renewable energy. A second facility of equal size will be built in the near future with a gold LEED rating.

AMD is also a main sponsor for the California Clean Tech Open, a competition for innovative ideas for clean technology, and is a member of the Alliance to Save Energy and the Climate Savers Initiative.

Two years ago, AMD introduced a new chip based on performance per watt, lowering the amount of energy consumption required.

“We changed the industry’s agenda!” Mr. Vertal said. “Instead of just making chips faster and faster, performance per watt is about energy efficiency. The road to a sustainable economy begins with energy efficiency.”

The new technology was not only good for the environment; it was good for AMD’s bottom line. Their market share for server chips quickly jumped from 9 percent to 20 percent worldwide.

Mr. Vertal himself has deep roots in Claremont. His wife Tina is a Pitzer College graduate, and the couple raised their daughter here. They moved away for 9 years to South Carolina where Mr. Vertal was tasked with turning around AT&T’s computer division.

Their daughter Rina stayed in town and is now married to Claremont Police Chief Paul Cooper. The Vertals decided to move back to the city 4 years ago to be close to family and friends.

“In Claremont, nobody really knows who I am or what I do,” he said. “Nor do they probably even care if they knew. And that’s a good thing. I can go out to dinner in Claremont or walk down the street and unlike in Silicon Valley, I won’t run into somebody I know in the business that wants to talk about some new technology or the latest deal or that kind of stuff. It’s great!”