We're always mindful of our impact on the environment. Here are some of the ways we tread lightly.
Packaging:
The Styrofoam packing material known as peanuts has been replaced with inflated cushioning air bags. They offer a much better solution and create less mess for the recipient. As a consequence, much less packaging mass is injected into the waste stream. Air bags are easily reused or deflated.
We do our part to protect the environment by recycling the following items:
Office paper. Employees are encouraged to bring paper from home to be recycled
Aluminum cans are collected and properly recycled.
Cardboard is compacted, baled, recycled and made into new boxes. We then buy our boxes from the same company.
Ni-Cad and Alkaline batteries are sent to a a R2 certified recycler
Obsolete circuit boards are sold to R2 certified recyclers for their chips and metal content.
Telephone housings and other plasticsare collected and sent to R2 certified plastics recycler.
Large telephone control unit cabinets and other metal items are sold by the pound to certified e-scrap companies.
Used handset / line cords and cable are sold for their copper content
Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) monitors are disposed of properly due to their lead content
General e-waste (miscellaneous electronics) are recycled by a certified e-scrap recycler.
Atlantel maintains a NO-LANDFILL policy for all e-scrap.
Our recycling efforts are motivated by conscience as well as the money received (in that order of importance).
We are working to lower our consumption of electricity and natural gas.
(not just for the environment but also to lower expenses)
1.) Our computer server room was audited by a consultant and reconfigured for efficiency. Streamlining allowed us to eliminate servers and other power consumers resulting in an estimated 52% reduction of electricity used. As a result, the power necessary to cool this room was also significantly reduced.
2.) We replaced the roof on our facility using a white reflective membrane along with added deck insulation, lowering power consumption for cooling and heating. This also reduced the amount of reflective solar radiation (heat in the atmosphere) over Atlanta (an Urban Heat Island as defined by NASA). "Painting the roofs of buildings white may reduce the impact of the urban heat island effect by as much as 33 percent, significantly cooling off cities and helping society adjust to the changing climate, suggests a new study soon to be published in Geophysical Research Letters." The owner of Atlantel has installed white roofing and insulation on three other Atlanta industrial buildings totaling 132,000 square feet.
3.) HVAC equipment was replaced during renovation with the highest efficiency units available at that time.
4.) And of course the obvious actions: non-essential computers are turned off at night and thermostats are programmed to be off after hours.
5.) Re-lamping of the warehouses is 50% complete as of July 2011. Power consumption is 60% less than the Metal Halide fixtures formerly used. If you're interested in changing your fixtures, visit www.fullspectrumsolutions.com to learn about a high-quality line of American made fixtures and bulbs.
HOW CAN WE HELP YOU WITH YOUR E-SCRAP, EQUIPMENT DISPOSITION AND ASSET DISPOSAL.
