Going green is great for business

KYOCERA SGS are putting their problem-solving expertise into addressing their impact on the environment. As well as being great for the planet, making their supply chain and other aspects more sustainable is also good news for their business and their customers. The company’s environmentally friendly initiatives cover a wide range of areas at their head office in Wokingham:

Food waste
As part of their continuing drive to reduce their general waste to minimal levels, KYOCERA SGS have implemented food waste recycling.
When food waste is sent to landfill, it breaks down in the same way but the biogas produced goes straight into the atmosphere and contributes to climate change. Methane is 25 times more damaging that carbon dioxide. Instead, our food waste is now put into an anaerobic digester where micro-organisms break down food waste in the absence of oxygen. This process produces biogas, a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide which can then be used to produce heat, electricity or transport fuels. The gas itself is a source of renewable energy exported to the national grid. Anaerobic digestion also creates bio-fertiliser which can be used in farming as a natural fertiliser.

Recycling

As you would expect, KYOCERA SGS are working to meet standard recycling rates for business. This involves having separate cardboard and paper recycling bins in place throughout the building to significantly reduce the amount of general waste sent to landfill. Two 1100l recycling bins are emptied once a week by a specialist environmental waste company.

Lighting

With lighting being a big energy drain, all the lights at the KYOCERA SGS’s head office are now on 15-minute timers. So, if there’s no movement or activity, no light and energy is wasted.

Printers

As with the office lighting, all printers go into ‘sleep’ mode when they’re not in use. If printing is absolutely necessary, all printers are set to print on both sides and on recycled paper only. Plus, all of the company’s works orders are now scanned into the system and the paper copies are recycled.

Plastic waste

With plastics waste rightfully high on the public agenda now, the company are also currently reviewing their use of plastics at every level.

Logistics and shipping

KYOCERA SGS’s products are used by companies around the world, so logistics and shipping are a key area of focus. All of the company’s shipments are despatched using recycled boxes. They have also removed the use of their middle sized non-recyclable Jiffy bags and replaced them with their own branded boxes. They’re now going even further, being in the process of moving to recyclable printed Jiffy bags. All of their tools are individually boxed in a High-density Polyethylene plastic tube because they are widely recyclable. These boxes are also labelled on so that they can be returned to the company for re-use. Not content with these improvements, the company are also trialling using paper tape instead of the branded plastic packaging tape they currently use. By consolidating shipments to reduce their carbon footprint, they have also halved shipping volumes!

These steps forward are only the beginning. Just as KYOCERA SGS’s efforts to innovate for their customers never stop, neither does their work towards becoming a more sustainable and eco-friendly business.