Scottsdale Arizona: I know what exactly compelled us to want to turn our company GREEN? I really think for me it’s been coming for along time. My first personal experience came through my business dealings. In 1987 I was distributing personal care Items by the name of AVEDA. It happened that the owner of the line of products was as committed to the environmental aspect of the products as much as performance. As an exclusive distributor of the line we had to implement “GREEN” strategies for our distributorship as well as the customers we serviced. We were given a mandate that was difficult but once achieved would be historically a first. Our goal was to get out customers (Salon owners) to encourage their customers to return their bottles to the salon. This in itself was not the ground breaking event that would prove different then what other people had achieved. You see in those days recycling was a relatively new concept. People would collect the recycled items only to find out later that the cycle was broken. Because of a lack of infrastructure the recyclable item would be collected only to go right into the same landfill where the rest of their trash was taken. Our goal was to be the first in an enterprise scenario to achieve a complete re-cycle. We proved it could be done, and many of us at the time felt that it was definitely possible to do it on a much larger scale.
Of course today looking back I can see that our efforts were no more then a “Beta” test. But I can’t help believe that our efforts as small and unnoticed as they were changed the world just a little for the good. But now its 2007 a new millennium and a lot of water has flowed under the proverbial bridge. I find myself looking at the world from a much different angle. Last September I had an opportunity to turn my business needs into an around the world journey. The night before I was to start my 12-country 25-day journey we happened to watch Al Gore’s then new movie about global warming. Needless to say I could think of nothing else from that point on. What I was about to discover about this big rock called earth would shock me!
Some of you already know Brand Vending Products travels to Asia and South East Asia to acquire the very goods that are vended out of bulk vending machines today. Over the years of traveling we have observed changes in Asia. Some would say for the better, for me I say the environment has a different story to tell. Next to every new building, bridge or highway lays the dirty evidence from a runaway industrial boom. To be fair, not a lot different then what this country experienced during it’s industrial revolution! You probably have already heard this, and so what you say! 12 countries not just one, in every region I visited from China to South Africa to Western Europe the Carbon footprint was huge. I got the impression from talking to locals that climate has been seriously affected. I heard things consistently like “we have never seen or experienced weather like we are seeing.”
Ok I’m back in the Great US of A and it’s easy to fall right back into the same habits. Not this time! We at Brand can do something different! Maybe not ground breaking but something. We have as a community within our company committed to taking steps to reducing our “Carbon Foot” print. We have committed ourselves to spreading our thoughts and efforts out to the larger community we belong to “Bulk Vending”. We at Brand acknowledge the need to change and we will stand for this change and look for other such companies to team up with. If you would like to talk more about what can be done, today, contact us at Brand Vending Products, 1-800-967-3048 or contact us via e-mail at daxl@brandimports.com.
