On America Recycles Day, Impact Continues Eco-Friendly Initiatives
November 15th, 2018 marks the 21st year of America Recycles Day, also known as National Recycling Day. This day serves as a reminder to people across the country to take an active role in going green. At Impact Networking, eco-friendly initiatives are not only part of the company culture, but also part of services that allow customers to help make their own impact on the environment.
An early partnership between Impact and Clover Technologies Group spurred the first of several green initiatives, a toner recycling program which has netted over 43,000 in used cartridges and other printer materials since its inception in May of 2015, equaling approximately 32 tons of waste that would have ended up in landfills across the country. To increase customer participation, and therefore results, Impact made the process as easy as possible for customers by organizing the steps for tracking, packaging and returning used products. The results showed early on that clients were enthusiastic to do their part, and continue to benefit from the productivity associated with the process that monitors their print supplies for replacement.
One of the most successful environmental efforts has been Impact’s partnership with PrintReleaf. PrintReleaf is a cloud-based software that tracks paper usage and reports how many trees were deforested to procure that consumption. Doing so encourages users to be more mindful of what they’re printing by putting analytics behind it and helps offset the environmental impact of the paper usage by partnering with a global network of reforestation projects to re-plant the same number of trees that were consumed.
Since 2016, Impact began including the ReLeaf software into all its managed print services (MPS) deals, making it easy for all customers to track their paper output and contribute to reforestation. In just over 2 years, this program has allowed for the reforesting of over 250,000 trees and in 2017, inspired Impact to begin selling sustainably-sourced paper, giving its customers another way to make their daily print use eco-friendly. Overall, customers have helped Impact save over 2 billion pieces of paper and make a difference globally:
The success of these efforts encouraged the Impact team to look beyond print and paper-based recycling programs. As many of the company’s employees receive up to four uniforms per year, used clothing piles up quickly. To make the most of these used and unworn materials, Impact connected with Chicago Textile Recycling, a division of Wipeco, Inc., to collect gently-used and extra clothing for recycling and reuse. This initiative serves multiple purposes, working to reduce the pollution associated with clothing production, providing clothing for people in need in developing countries and promoting conservation by putting old materials to new use as cleaning materials and fibers. So far, the partnership has shipped several large boxes of clothes to be upcycled, and will continue to show progress as the Impact team continues to grow.
America Recycles Day offers a great reminder to companies that helping reduce the global ecological footprint can start at the workplace. Impact strives to make these efforts to go green easier for its customers with initiatives that naturally coincide with the day-to-day workflow, and continue to find ways to incorporate the health of businesses with the health of the environment.
Impact is always looking for new ways to improve our effect on the environment. For those interested in presenting an initiative to our team, please contact Mary Zellers at 847-473-7160.