Large corporations frequently espouse sustainability as a key company value, undertaking massive projects that require complex energy systems and strategies to reach their corporate social responsibility goals. While these certainly are noble efforts, they are also typically fairly obvious initiatives.

There is nothing wrong with pursuing such programs, but companies should keep in mind that initiatives with hard-to-grasp benefits can seem distant and other-worldly to the average consumer or stakeholder. There are exceptions, of course.

Occasionally, an initiative to improve our stewardship of the environment comes and captures the hearts and ingenuity of the masses. The overwhelming support by individuals and companies of all sizes to move away from plastic straws lately quickly comes to mind. It is not that users and providers of straws were looking to pollute; the issue of straw pollution was simply something “below the radar.”

In this case, it took the passion of a few to highlight the issue in a way that drove the many to act and as a result, we have seen mobilization on a grand scale. And there are other opportunities out there like it.

A lesser-known opportunity for environmental stewardship.

Among the “out-of-sight, out-of-mind” opportunities for environmental impact reduction is the repair and management of commercial vacuum cleaners in retail outlets, healthcare facilities and other high-traffic locations.

Many organizations—some of whom openly proclaim their dedication to sustainability—are unaware that they are generating large volumes of waste by throwing away commercial vacuum cleaners that usually weigh 20–25 pounds each and will remain intact in a landfill for the foreseeable future. Especially given the trend towards purchase of cheaper units that are tossed out at the first sign of trouble (even if it were to turn out to be a simple clog), and the fact that local repair shops are a dying breed, this problem of vacuum cleaner waste is escalating dramatically with no slowdown in sight.

Herein lies a major sustainability challenge that is quite tangible, but easily overlooked. There is a relatively simple (and economically viable) solution to the problem, however.

A company like VSI Global can offer a rotational model where broken vacuums are repaired in a central location and “rotated” throughout a client’s locations. When a unit breaks in the field, a repaired unit is sent to the facility and the broken unit is sent back to VSI for repairs. Once that machine has been fixed, it is sent to another location in need of a repaired unit.

For large organizations with many facilities around the country, commercial vacuum cleaners are breaking on a regular basis. This sort of system-wide management would allow those units to be repaired multiple times over the course of a 10- to 15-year life span rather than being thrown away after a few weeks of operation at average corporate use. An organization committing to such a program could prevent thousands of pounds of waste from entering landfills every year with no additional effort or cost required.

In this model, a Company can purchase a higher quality machine that cleans better and breaks down less, and over a 10 year period will end up spending no more (frankly less) than buying throwaways over and over again, while significantly reducing landfill waste. Now take that one example and multiply by the number of units a larger retailer, health system, educational institution or commercial real estate service company, and you can see the overwhelming benefits that can be enjoyed.

Some organizations clearly understand the value of embracing an environmentally conscious program like the one described above. I was recently speaking to one sustainability executive for a large retailer who stated, “commercial vacuum repair in a rotational model is the only sustainable program that I have ever seen that is both effective and economically more advantageous than the non-sustainable status quo.”

Unfortunately, others are sometimes confronted with thorough analyses showing that a unit repaired multiple times costs far less over a period of time than buying multiple throwaways, yet chose not to make a change. I have also heard “I don’t know how many units we throw away or how much landfill waste we create, but I know the throwaway units cost less at the outset, so that is what we are doing for now.”

Making strides every day.

If we are to continue making concrete strides towards sustainable operations every day, we must not only make environmentally conscious decisions ourselves, but encourage the people and organizations around us to do the same—much as those who started the plastic straw elimination programs did.

You can start by encouraging companies that want to embrace cost-effective sustainability initiatives to consider looking first in the dark closets scattered throughout their buildings that house their cleaning equipment. Retailers, hospital systems, educational institutions and others may be using throwaway vacuums without realizing that they could do their part to reduce strain on our overflowing landfills fairly easily if they were to rethink their processes and embrace a system like the rotational vacuum repair model. They can embrace sustainability AND save money doing it.

 If we all do our part to raise awareness of relatively simple shifts towards more sustainable practices, supporting organizations who embrace those practices over those who do not, we can create the momentum necessary to build sustainability into everyday life.

 ~ Roger Knight, Chairman, VSI Global LLC.   www.vsiglobal.com