Second Act and the Environment

A company’s impact on the environment is a very complex subject. Decisions are made every day with the best intentions in mind but a process or procedure can have unintended consequences on the environment. Adhering to the common Reduce, Reuse, Recycle mantra is a reasonable way to approach being environmentally responsible and it is a way of doing things we embrace at Second Act. We try to incorporate it into how we run our office/warehouse facilities all the way to how we deliver products to our customers. Additionally, we believe that dealing in factory refurbished products is environmentally responsible. In our opinion, why not have an item that may not have worked right or fit right in the first place refurbished and used again?

Many times a small business has little control over things like supply chain management and manufacturing processes at the companies from which they buy and the corporate practices of those partners with which they do business. However, a small business definitely has control over how their on-site operation is run. We employ some practices to do our part in reducing our energy needs, our carbon output and our overall environmental impact, such as:

• Each workstation uses power strips that are shut off during non-working hours to avoid idle power drawn by electronics.
• We strive to be as paperless as possible and recycle all paper, plastic and aluminum waste.
• We require our shipping partner to consolidate all of our shipments for bi-weekly line hauls. Therefore, more TVs can be put into one truck for cross-country shipment as opposed to running several smaller loads more frequently.
• Although we do not always succeed, we always ask our suppliers to warehouse the product we buy from them at their location to avoid incremental shipments, e.g., shipment from them to us, then us to you. This saves fuel, energy and reduces carbon output.
• We try to keep our suppliers limited to those manufacturers that participate in the EPA’s Plug In to eCycling Program.

We also care about what happens to the products that ours may be replacing. TV picture tubes, for example, contain an average of four pounds of lead and require special handling at the end of their lives. In addition to lead, electronics can contain chromium, cadmium, mercury, beryllium, nickel, zinc, and brominated flame retardants. When electronics are not disposed of or recycled properly, these toxic materials can have a long term detrimental impact on our environment. Extending the life of your electronics or donating your most up-to-date and working electronics can save you money and saves valuable environmental resources. Safely recycling outdated electronics promotes the safe management of hazardous components and supports the recovery and reuse of valuable materials. To that end, we try to assist our customers in the responsible disposal or recycling of their end of life electronics. Some helpful resources we have found that assist us in this goal can be found here:

• Donate your used electronics to schools (http://www.eiae.org/links/donation.cfm)
• Learn about the EPA’s eCycling programs (http://www.epa.gov/ecycling/)
• Learn about the EPA’s Product Stewardship program and where in your area you can participate
(http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/reduce/epr/index.htm)
• Find an eCycler near you with the Electronics Industries Alliance (http://www.eiae.org/)
• The National Recycling Coalition is great resource for finding eCyclers in your area and educating yourself on the importance of disposing of your electronics responsibly (http://www.nrc-recycle.org/localresources.aspx)

We care about running a successful business so we can continue to support the families of those that work at Second Act. We also care about serving our customers – both in a straightforward transactional sense and in how we impact them indirectly through the decisions we make each day.