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"Suddenly, from behind the rim of the moon, ..."
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How We're Reducing Our Environmental Impact
Ever since we started AwesomeTools, we've been concerned about
how our business practices might be helping and/or hurting the
environment. We're environmentalists
at heart, believe that global warming and climate changes are
happening, and want to be 'pro-active' in our response to these
issues.
And recently, while reading 'Natural Capitalism - Creating the
Next Industrial Revolution', I realized we can do more.
Now! Today! So here's what we're up to!
We inherently believe that on-line
ordering has a smaller environmental impact than each
customer jumping in their car and visiting one or more stores to
locate what we offer. Our reasoning:
- UPS trucks (and planes), filled with
hundreds of customers items, are
'programmed' by UPS to run the most energy-efficient routes
possible to deliver all those items. After all,
fuel is one of their highest expenses.
- We do not
have a print catalog - which means no trees are used to produce,
print, mail, and eventually discard. Viewing our products,
and transferring a few thousand bytes around the US is
inherently a low-impact process.
So what are WE doing to minimize our
impact?
- We always try to order full cases
of a product from each vendor. This saves the
vendor from including any extra packing or filler materials in
our shipments, and since they usually 'size' their boxes to be a
tight fit for quantity of products in a case, this also
minimizes the actual cardboard used/shipped.
- Continuing that line of reasoning,
we offer our customers discounts for purchasing full cases
of products from us. This allows us to reuse the box it
came in, not have to add packing materials, and we can pass the
savings on to you.
- Note: If you need a large quantity of mailboxes, or
other bulky items, give us a call. We might be able to
route that pallet directly to you, and save even more fossil
fuel!
- We size our
purchases to fill a 'pallet' (mailboxes definitely
lend themselves to this) whenever possible. So, instead of receiving
multiple boxes by UPS or FedEx, we get a pallet delivered by a
common carrier (big truck). This does require us to be
more 'on top' of our inventory control, since pallet deliveries
tend to take a few extra days to arrive.
- We reuse (recycle) as much of the
boxes and packing materials we receive from out vendors as
possible. So you may receiver your order in
boxes that promote other products, and/or the packing material
may look a little used. We even have family and friends saving
their boxes and packing materials from other vendors for us to
recycle.
- We're working hard at 'sizing' our
shipments to the smallest possible box - reducing the
bulk, and therefore the space it takes to ship. Although
UPS charges by weight, smaller boxes have got to help them get
more in a truck, and a plane, and therefore indirectly save
resources.
- Our 'peanuts' are made from recycled
materials. That's the good news. The bad
news - they are not inherently biodegradable '-((
So, all future orders will be for the biodegradable ones.
They cost quite a bit more, but are starch based and break down
in landfills in weeks and months, not years and decades.
Which, no matter how much we encourage recycling, is where most
of them end up eventually!
- We reduced by 50% the paper we
print to fulfill your order, eliminating the 'File
Copy'. This not only saves paper, but storage boxes,
filing space, etc - implementing the concept of maximizing
savings by moving the improvement as far upstream in the process
as possible.
What can YOU do to support/extend our
environmental practices?
- We encourage you to reuse the boxes
and packing materials whenever possible. Or at
least RECYCLE them. Please do not let them end up in a
landfill!
- When practical, take advantage of
our case ordering discounts. For all the
reasons stated above - and you save money in the process!
IF YOU have suggestions, or comments,
please let us know. This is the only planet we
have, and the photos from the moon missions show how small it really
is!
Suddenly,
from behind the rim of the moon, in long, slow-motion moments of
immense majesty, there emerges a sparkling blue and white jewel,
a light, delicate sky-blue sphere laced with slowly swirling
veils of white, rising gradually like a small pearl in a thick
sea of black mystery. It takes more than a moment to fully
realize this is Earth . . . home. - Edgar Mitchell,
Apollo 14
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How
We're Reducing our environmental impact
