Going Green: From turning on a television to opening your favorite social media app, it seems like the exposure of the wellbeing of our planet is getting more and more attention each day. Environmentalism is at its peak, and younger and younger people are gaining interest. The future of our ever-changing world is taking charge, and it’s only a matter of time before the act of going green is implemented everywhere.
Sustainability is the absolute core of eco-friendly living, and it’s something that has been advanced greatly in the past years, from solar panel-operated homes to electric cars. It’s also something that is constantly being pushed by Spector & Co., and each step has made an incredible difference.
We have gone to great lengths over the years with our green initiative, fully implementing the 3 R’s—reduce, reuse and recycle—into daily production and work. It’s not only been used within our company itself, but it has also been extended to the employees (both in the office and those working from home), in order to spread the green lifestyle outside of their professional lives.
A business goes through a lot of returns. Some products come back damaged, some come back perfect. Regardless of the situation, returns tend to produce an abundance of wasted material, especially if the product is no longer reusable. Each year, 5 billion pounds of waste is produced just through returned items, which equates to 15 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions. No matter the condition, returns are handled differently than brand new items, and it’s often cheaper for companies to simply throw them in a landfill than to repurpose them. We have made it a priority to make sure that all our returned items are put back to good use—and any part that is no longer used is recycled or repurposed for other products, regardless of cost. Sustainability and reducing waste is our priority over all.
We have also made all our machinery electric, reducing the amount of harmful byproducts that tend to come about during production. Electric machinery is not only safer due to the zero amount of diesel emissions being generated during production, but they operate at a far lower noise level, and they come with a lower cost of ownership. Within our lists and lists of amazing ecological achievements, we also took the step to change all factory lighting from halogen to LED. Halogen, an incandescent lamp, creates a large amount of CO2 emissions and uses up to five times more energy than LED bulbs. It is so energy-consuming that our switch to LED represents the equivalent to 52 cars off the road, or more than 60 tons of CO2 emissions per year.
Along with the lights, we also put in a system to be able to recover electronics, batteries, and lightbulbs. The items are taken apart, and the valuable metals are recuperated. The staff is also encouraged to bring items from home—old electronics, lights, or metals—so that the materials can be safely recycled and repurposed.
Going forward, we have incredible plans to further reduce their carbon footprint. Plans to make most plastics, contaminated inks, scraps of various materials and rags into 100% energy are already in the works, and efforts are being made daily to reach that goal and continue our positive impact on the environment. We don’t only help the environment behind-the-scenes—we also offer top-of-the-line eco-friendly products, and this range of green items is constantly being expanded.
We offer everything from unique bamboo-made pens and holders to a beautiful line of bags (Renew) and a line of pens and journals (Aqua) created entirely from recycled plastic bottles. Disposable pens are a big contributor to landfill waste, which is why Spector & Co. also offers eco-friendly pens with a refillable ink feature.
Green is the answer, and it’s helping companies not only ecologically, but also economically. We have worked and fought hard to implement green initiatives throughout our company, both for the employees and the establishment. Small considerations such as these are incredibly impactful, especially when they touch people outside of the workplace, allowing them to spread it to others. And that is exactly what we have done—seamlessly encouraging and implementing a lifestyle of reuse, reduce, and recycle in almost every section of our work, and it’s only getting better with each project. The future is bright and for Spector & Co.—bright, and green.
The statistics don’t lie: We have continuously pushed for sustainability each year. In 2015, we turned 50% of 18,000 kg of hazardous and contaminated waste into energy. By 2017, it was up to 75%. Our goal for 2020 was 100%, and we achieved that goal!
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