2020 and the evolution of environmental protection

We’ve already briefly explained how we envision our future and the steps we are taking to ensure we reach it at the end of our previous blog. Continuing this topic in this article, we will now talk about what a business can do to protect the environment and create a more livable future.

The past and this year have undoubtedly turned out to be unusual and have also posed unexpected challenges for people, society and the environment. Aside from the economic and health difficulties caused by the pandemic and the problems that still need to be solved, we must not forget an important issue that also affects our whole world. This is environmental protection, climate protection and sustainability. In 2019, many countries acted and movements also emerged around this topic. You could say that protecting the environment has become a ‘fad’, which has proven to be a good direction for change. However, during the challenging year affected by the coronavirus, environmental protection was pushed into the background a bit. Perhaps the only “benefit” of the epidemic for our planet was that pollution slowed down a bit as a result of the restrictive measures. Factories were temporarily shut down, and the number of cars in circulation dropped significantly, for a time. There are many scientific reports and articles that our Earth is beginning to be depleted and we really need to protect it if we want to leave a livable world for our descendants. That is why it is important to discuss the importance of environmental protection and sustainability and to make climate protection our main goal. The first step in this is to start living consciously as individuals. The saying goes, "a lot of little things go a long way." Perhaps for many, it is already evident what an individual or a family can do to reduce their ecological footprint, as in 2019 and since then it has been a current and constant topic in the press. This includes but is not limited to selective waste collection, a conscious and waste-free lifestyle, striving for plastic-free living, composting or even using cars less.

What can we do?

However, the question arises as to what a company or a larger enterprise can do to be an active and effective part of climate protection. Is it the duty of a company to take part in this at all? At Solvelectric Technologies, we are committed to being an active player in climate protection and sustainable development. Over the years, we have introduced a number of innovations to help our company reduce its ecological footprint as well. Even if these are small steps, we think the more areas we are environmentally aware in, the more we will do to reduce pollution! We renovated our site in the name of sustainability. The hot water is provided by solar collectors, which is collected in a 2000-liter insulated tank. This also helps our central heating system during the heating season. The electricity we use is generated by solar panels to reduce our carbon footprint. We have been collecting waste selectively for more than 10 years. Every year, our service collects more than 10,000 kg of hazardous waste from the population, which we recycle. Our latest goal is to reduce plastic waste. To this end, at the end of 2020, we purchased a water purification device, which allowed us to cease buying plastic-bottled, shrink-wrapped water, thus reducing the company's plastic production. So far, we have been able to save almost 7,000 bottles of plastic. We have set a number of goals for 2021 as well. We want to minimize paper production, so our company has switched to electronic invoicing and we are also digitizing our office. Furthermore, by changing the packaging of goods, we also avoid the use of plastic in our packaging materials.

Plans

In addition to these, we would like to incorporate the concept of corporate citizenship into our company, ie corporate social responsibility. What exactly is this? The European Council defined it as "Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a key concept designed to help companies integrate social and environmental concerns into their corporate activities and relationships with stakeholders."

This is also our exact goal for 2021 and the future, so that we can develop ourselves further with this concept in mind. With the measures and plans we have listed; we strive to be as environmentally conscious and friendly as possible for a company.

What has been achieved already

What has been successfully accomplished so far from our 2021 plans is the completion of a 100% eco-friendly bag that is available with our SolveAir UNI product. Not only can you carry the device comfortably with you with the help of this bag, it can even be a permanent and useful accessory for your everyday life without being a burden for the environment, as its material is made entirely of cotton. This is also important because it makes SolveAir UNI’s packaging 100% environmentally friendly, recyclable and biodegradable. We continue to strive to design the packaging of all our products to be made entirely of degradable and recyclable materials.