Hey, Kermit, it can be easy to be green. That’s what we at The Kingswood Company have learned in the last five years, as we have embraced efforts to achieve greater environmental sustainability. We were environmentally aware back before it was cool; most of our products have been non-toxic and biodegradable for more than fifty years! But we knew there was more we could do to help Mother Earth, so we redesigned our jars in 2006. By doing so, we reduced the amount of plastic we use by more than 25,000 pounds every year. Our customers still get the same fantastic jewelry care products, just in a lighter jar. The lighter jar reduces the amount of fuel required to ship to our customers too, so reduced shipping costs are nice side benefit for us all.
We have been able to reduce fuel usage in other ways too. One hundred percent of our suppliers are based in the United States, so the cost of shipping raw materials to our facility in Columbus, Ohio is much less. Whenever possible, we use local and regional suppliers, especially for heavy materials such as corrugate and chemicals. Less road to travel; less fuel used. When we must use suppliers outside of the region, we work to ensure that inbound shipments are consolidated and use backhaul shipping lanes to conserve fuel. It takes a little more planning on our part, but Mother Earth is worth it!
We also use as much recycled materials as possible when manufacturing our jars, caps, brushes and baskets. And many of those same materials can be recycled by the end-consumer of our products. We encourage our end-consumers to recycle, but we aren’t asking them to do anything we don’t do ourselves. In 2009, we introduced a new recycling program in our facility that has reduced manufacturing and office waste by more than 65 percent. Plus we do the little things, like making sure all lights, computers and heating and cooling systems are turned off when we aren’t there; they are little things that when combined with the efforts of others add up to big changes. Each of these changes reaffirms our commitment to environmental sustainability. We’ll keep looking for more ways to reduce our impact on the environment. Really, Kermit, it’s easy being green.
