CCI: Our logo is blue, but we are always working on being greener
July 27, 2018
It’s late July, the tomatoes are beginning to ripen on the vine and the rainbow chard is putting on a show. CCI is enjoying its third year of hosting a community garden for our employees, just one of our many ongoing efforts in ever-increasing our sustainability practices.
CCI has long included sustainability into virtually every aspect of our operations. We go beyond standard practices like recycling metal, corrugated cardboard, and plastics, focusing on additional more subtle aspects of sustainability, for example:
Packaging and Shipping
- CCI supports returnable packaging arrangements for a variety of bulk packaged items, reducing single-use packaging waste
- Procurement of new HDPE packaging options compatible with high purity hazardous materials, such as nitric acid, allows for increased recycling options and reduction in transportation space and weight compared to PVC coated glass, while continuing to provide shatter resistant containers
- CCI provides drop-ship services for our distributors, eliminating double handling and transportation
Energy & Resources
- Continual increases in electronic filing and document management reduces paper consumption, for example, CCI now provides over 98% of customer invoices electronically!
- Lighting throughout our facilities is either LED or high efficiency linear fluorescent. Motion activation, task lighting and natural lighting in strategic areas such as warehouses, offices and restrooms allow reduction of general overhead lighting use
- An increasing percentage of meetings are handled via teleconferencing, minimizing travel
- Different areas of the facilities are now provided with separate HVAC systems, resulting in significant energy reduction potential
Material and Waste Management
- Enhanced real-time inventory management, combined with carefully integrated supply chain and production/shipping practices, minimizes waste from excess materials
- Various bulk chemicals are handled in dedicated lines, minimizing rinsate
- Our dedicated wastewater collection and pre-treatment system minimizes the materials needed for wastewater treatment
- By a variety of changed practices, hazardous waste has been steadily reduced, over 75% in the past 4 years alone
It is our goal as a company to focus on process improvement to continually achieve higher levels of on-time deliveries, and improve response time to customers, while simultaneously reducing waste. Our employees are encouraged to share fresh ideas openly and our Process Improvement team meets regularly to explore new ideas and evaluate progress on implemented improvements.
Contact CCI to see how we can help you achieve your specialty chemical related sustainability objectives.
