Sustainability Is For All Businesses

I previously wrote this blog in February, 2010, but the message is still important today.

As a marketer, I’m always looking for new ways to promote the company I work for. Like most marketers, I want our message to be current and focused on the interests of our target markets. Sometimes it’s not possible to match our company’s competitive advantages with the latest ‘trends’. But other times, there’s a ‘perfect fit’.

You can’t read the internet or newspaper headlines today without seeing an article on sustainability or green initiatives. My initial reaction was that this just didn’t pertain to our company. We build packaging machinery. How could we change or do anything (other than recycling our waste) that would help the environment? Fortunately, I decided to ask around the company to see what I could find. I was in for a big surprise.

To look at an NEM unscrambler, capper, orienter, or other product, you wouldn’t know that these machines are built utilizing green initiatives. After all, it looks like any other machine constructed with metal, plastic, wires, and motors. It’s what you don’t see, though, that makes the big difference.

NEM utilizes a very ‘green’ process for powder coating its main plates. The process requires low energy, no solvents and no water. This new method is clean and environmentally friendly.

All NEM machines are designed with fractional horsepower motors that use less energy. Another important NEM energy-saving design criteria allows the machines to automatically turn off both compressed air and power when in an idle state to save on these resources.

NEM’s plant and offices recycle all of the cardboard, plastic, and scrap raw materials used. We’ve also installed energy efficient light bulbs.

NEM is continually looking for ways to decrease our ‘environmental footprint’. If you know of a product or manufacturing process that might be beneficial to NEM, please share it with us. You can call us at (941) 755-5550. We only have this one planet to pass on to future generations. Let’s all work together to keep it clean and healthy.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.