Need Help or Advice?
Call the Insight team
01273 475 500
Need Help or Advice?
Call the Insight team
01273 475 500
Over recent years the impact that human activity is having on our natural environment has become starkly apparent. Global warming is happening at a worrying pace and overwhelming evidence shows that humans are the root cause. We are continuously seeing record breaking temperatures, extreme weather changes and rising sea levels as the polar ice caps melt. One of the main contributing factors to the deterioration of our natural environment is corporate pollution. Many businesses have huge carbon footprints and create enormous quantities of corporate waste. But most forward-thinking organisations are now taking steps to reduce the impact that their operations are having on our world.
Here are some of the green initiatives that we’ve implemented here at Insight Security which we hope will inspire others to do what they can to reduce their environmental impact and implement environmentally sustainable business practices.
All businesses consume energy, often resulting in hefty electricity bills. Paying attention to energy consumption is not only great for the environment, it saves money. Here are a couple of practical steps that we’ve taken that have significantly reduced our electricity bills.
Leaving electrical devices switched on, unnecessarily, wastes a significant amount of energy. So we’ve invested in extensive use of timers and thermostats for all of our office and warehouse heating and lighting. This simple investment has also alleviated staff from being responsible for switching things off before departing at the end of the day.
Another major energy saving initiative that we’ve implemented is to invest in replacing all of our old lighting systems, throughout our offices and warehouse, with energy efficient LED lighting. LED lighting is much more efficient than traditional incandescent or fluorescent lighting as 95% of the electrical energy is converted into light with only 5% wasted as heat.
Reducing our electricity demand means we need less power from the power station resulting in reduced greenhouse gas emissions - and lower electricity bills.
Minimising the amount of rubbish we all send to landfill is a vitally important aspect of sustainability. Landfill dumps take up valuable space and contribute to both water and air pollution. It therefore makes sense to reuse and recycle as much as possible.
One of our main waste reduction initiatives has been to reuse as much as we can in our product packaging. All paper and cardboard in our business is collected, processed and reused in our product packaging while other forms of waste are sorted and recycled where possible.
Packaging is a big part of our business, as it will be for many others. We have a range of packaging needs from protecting relatively simple products, while in transit to customers, to the need for robust, secure, heavy duty packaging that’s essential for the safe conveyance of certain products such as anti-climb spikes.
Since packaging is so important to our business and our customers we have explored various options including the use of bought-in, manufactured packaging made entirely from recycled materials. We’ve found that this form of packaging tends to cost more than packaging manufactured from virgin materials and most importantly, many of the recycled packaging products investigated are actually less environmentally friendly than products made from virgin materials. For example, some packaging products created from recycled materials, don’t break down in landfill in the same way as conventional products.
For many years we’ve paid close attention to what we can do to both minimise the amount of packaging we use and ensure we use only packaging which can be readily recycled or safely disposed of. One of our most significant initiatives, as previously mentioned, has been to reuse paper and cardboard waste from around our business to minimise our use of plastic bubble wrap. This was achieved by investing in a cardboard box shredder and routinely collecting all of the shredable material from various business departments. Our box shredder now converts waste cardboard boxes into lattice type, straw-like packaging that’s ideal for most of our needs. We’re now spending far less on unnecessary packaging materials while reducing our overall waste output by recycling cardboard through our box shredder which was clearly an excellent investment.
Any business that involves supply chains, from manufacturers to the vendor and then onward to the customer, understands the cost of the journeys involved. Keeping the distances travelled by products to an absolute minimum makes a valuable contribution toward reducing the carbon footprint. For this reason we work hard to source as many of our products from nearby suppliers, wherever possible.
Another important contribution to the reduction of carbon footprint is achieved by buying in bulk and therefore buying less frequently. By holding higher stock levels of products we are confident will sell we have reduced the number of journeys required from our suppliers and therefore we’ve reduced the carbon footprint.
Another area in which environmental improvements have been made is in the manufacture of certain products. For example, a key component of our Roller Barrier anti climb device is the rotating plastic cups for which we use several tons of polycarbonate every year. These are made from recycled polycarbonate wherever possible.
We are very proud of our track record in reducing the contribution that our business is making to climate change. Our staff are entirely focused on continuously finding new ways to further minimise our waste, save energy and reduce our carbon footprint. Our efforts are clearly appreciated by customers who often comment positively on the steps we’ve taken. This is what one of our customers has told us:
“10/10 for using recycled material for packaging”
Here at Insight Security we are justifiably proud of what we’ve achieved but recognise that there is much more that needs to be done by all businesses to tackle the climate change challenge.
Our mission includes the following policies:
If you have any questions regarding how to reduce your carbon footprint and minimise waste please remember that we are here to help. Give us a call on 01273 475500 and we’ll provide you with free, expert advice and guidance.
This message was added on Wednesday 10th June 2020