For millions of people around the globe, April 22 marks Earth Day, 24 important hours where we take time to recognize environmental challenges and make an effort to be more conscious of our surroundings. While it is important to designate one specific day to the environment, it is critical to make consistent efforts to keep our air clean, our water safe and be conservative with our energy consumption. As members of the security industry, there are many little things we can do to help lighten our footprint and become more eco-friendly. At Avigilon, we take a number of measures to keep both our industry and our earth green.

Production in any industry can be a wasteful process. Materials are created unnecessarily, facilities use more power than necessary, and factories are often located remotely with extensive travel required for access. At Avigilon, we make efforts to keep our production process as efficient as possible. Our production facility includes an efficient production line that cuts down on the amount of time it takes to manufacture the components of our cameras. This helps us save on the amount of time it takes to produce our cameras as well as energy. And we’ve chosen to locate our facility close to home, just a short distance from our head office. By stationing our production facility nearby, we are able to closely monitor our processes and can make any necessary alterations quickly and easily without flying half way around the world. Perhaps most importantly, at Avigilon we are committed to creating high-quality products that are durable and long lasting. This fact along with our other efforts at our manufacturing facility enables us to avoid unnecessary waste.

Our offices are another area where we make many efforts to be environmentally-friendly. At our global headquarters in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, we’ve implemented a recycling program office-wide for paper, cans, bottles and cardboard. And whenever possible we use e-signatures on forms to cut down on printing, faxing and scanning. In many situations, this can all be done via email.We’ve also made commuting easy for our employees by locating our head office close to bike paths and public transportation. Many members of our team bike to work instead of driving and our building offers a secure bike storage room for safekeeping. In 2012, we implemented a subsidized transit program, which offers employees passes at a reduced rate. The program makes it easier for our entire team to drive less and commute more often.

As we all know, organizations in the security industry today need to be international in scope in order to remain competitive. As a global company that’s quickly growing, we make all efforts to serve our end-users as best as possible in every country we have operations. For many organizations this can mean excessive travel, resulting in the release of unnecessary carbon emissions into the atmosphere. At Avigilon we’ve made efforts to station our teams locally, helping us cut down on unnecessary travel and as a result reduces our environmental footprint.

Earth Day is an important time to recognize our environmental efforts and improve our practices within the security industry. With a little effort and planning, we can make the world cleaner, safer and more efficient place for generations to come.