We take our environmental commitment seriously. Despite the number of initiatives we’ve introduced to help us reduce our carbon footprint, we’re always on the lookout for new ways of going greener. And our latest initiative is to phase out disposable batteries in favour of rechargeable ones.
Battery Powered Sustainability
Following a review of our use of domestic batteries, we made the decision to move away from the basic alkaline batteries in favour of Nickel-Metal-Hydride (NiMH) rechargeable ones. NiMH batteries have the advantage that they can last longer than alkaline batteries, and do not contain toxic heavy metals.
Initially this is just at our head office site, but with plans to introduce it across our other sites as soon as possible.
Why the switch?
The most common batteries are AA and AAA and every workplace uses them - often in wireless mice and keyboards. You’d be surprised by how many we need! And the quantity of batteries we get through is one of the reasons why we’re making the switch to rechargeable batteries. But there are other reasons too:
Sustainability
We take our environmental credentials seriously. Principally because it’s the right thing to do for the future of our planet. It’s estimated that, in the UK, around 600 million batteries are thrown away each year which is a shocking statistic. Spent batteries are a hazardous waste and do not belong in landfill - they contain corrosive materials and heavy metals which are bad for the environment and bad for human health. By using rechargeable batteries - which could last for years - we will be helping to reduce landfill significantly.
Disposing of batteries isn’t cheap
It’s now very easy to recycle batteries from home - virtually every supermarket has a tub where you can drop your old batteries into and, presumably, they’re collected and taken to a recycling centre to be dealt with properly. But it’s not that simple in the commercial world. Because we are a business, we have to pay to dispose of our old batteries, which means using reusable batteries saves us additional money, making the switch even better business sense for us.
Utilising our solar energy
Last spring, we installed solar panels at our headquarters in Welwyn Garden City which means we will be charging our reusable batteries with renewable energy. Which is about as green as you can get!
AFT Fluorotec’s sustainability initiatives so far
Our corporate responsibility commitment to sustainability is one of our core ethics and we’re doing everything we can to make AFT Fluorotec as sustainable as possible. We are ISO 14001:2015 accredited which means we tick the boxes for organisations looking for suppliers with substantial and proven sustainability credentials.
Our on-going commitment to reducing our carbon footprint has resulted in a number of initiatives of varying sizes. But even the smallest action helps towards the greater whole, so whether it’s as simple as shredding cardboard to use as packaging materials, or as ambitious as installing solar energy, or as mindful as swapping high solvent to water-based coatings and paints, we’re willing to do it!
