Introduction
In Part I of this article series, Understanding the Environmental Footprint of a Connectivity Product, we discussed a brief history of environmental sustainability, the challenges involved and the environmental footprint of a connectivity product. In Part II, we will share more about how Kordz is approaching environmental sustainability, the steps we’re taking and what you as a systems integrator can do to reduce your environmental footprint.
Reducing Our Environmental Footprint: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
With so many systemic challenges in the global supply chain influencing our environmental footprints, how can we at Kordz – a relatively small fish in the big pond of global supply chain – and you, as an integrator, take action??
It starts with awareness of the issues at hand, and then adopting the best possible practices using the golden rule of environmental sustainability: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
Fundamentally, we must first question if we really need something to begin with – eliminate and reduce consumption. Secondly, if we do, consider if we can repurpose and reuse items that we or someone else has, so that we don’t need to purchase brand new items. Thirdly, if we cannot reuse something, consider if we can better dispose of old items and packaging by offering them for recycling or recovery. Failing that, they will end up in landfill.
How Kordz is Working to Reduce the Environmental Footprint
First, let’s look at how Kordz is adopting these principles so far.
1. Reduce
Necessity
At Kordz we spend a great deal of time speaking with our integration community to better understand and design products that solve common connectivity issues. This is the innovation process we call Kordzifying. We provide the right products to the optimal specification for professional integrators without flashy, unnecessary extras that only add to the global carbon footprint and price. Given that technology constantly evolves, and as new manufacturing methods are discovered, products are often re-evaluated and updated over their lifetime to optimise their effectiveness and remove excess without sacrificing performance.
Robustness
The single most important aspect of our approach to environmental sustainability is our focus on robustness. Here, we ask how we can design and manufacture products to travel safely through the supply chain to ensure they always work and – where possible – last the lifetime of a building, so that they do not end up prematurely in landfill and wasting natural resources that may take hundreds of years to break down. We achieve this by exceeding industry standards and certifications, engineering for longevity and manufacturing with precision and strict quality control. Every product we make is also tested thoroughly for the purpose for which it was made. Kordz constantly re-engineers and updates its range to improve performance, reliability and sustainability with most products still working decades after they were manufactured.
Less Resource Consumption and Waste
At Kordz, we recognise the need to reduce the environmental impact of our manufacturing. As one important step forward, we are proud to say that our factory producing Kordz’ terminated products achieved the ISO 14064-1 qualification in June 2024, the international standard for greenhouse gas emissions quantification and reporting. Our factory that produces our bulk cable products is on track to achieve this same qualification later in 2024.
Our facilities are developing a closed loop cooling system to reduce water usage required to cool cables after insulation or jacketing. We are also installing solar panels that provide renewable energy and reduce the amount of electricity drawn from the grid.
Where possible, savings made across our waste reduction, power usage, manufacturing efficiency and shipping initiatives are passed on to our customers to make our products more affordable and more competitive, or they are reinvested into our product development.
In terms of our range, waste reduction is ultimately at the heart of the Kordzification process and the products we are developing. A great example is our PRO and PRS SlimCat Networking Systems and Patch Cords, which use better engineering, design, materials and manufacturing to deliver all the power of Cat6 and Cat6A cable in half the physical cable size. Just imagine if the millions of metres of Cat cable used by integrators every year around the world consumed half the physical materials and was engineered and built to last longer!
In January 2024, Kordz announced a revolutionary and patent-pending new packaging solution for our Patch Cords, BeltPak. This robust 10-pack ‘belt’ of individually packaged patch cords not only makes opening them quick and easy while reducing the cost per patch cord, but also significantly reduces waste by switching from plastic retail packaging to a 100% recyclable paper solution that is compact to pack, ship and dispose of, reducing impacts across the supply chain. In fact, BeltPak requires just one quarter of the shipping volume of individually packaged patch cords, whilst still guaranteeing shipping integrity and individual tested performance. This multi-award-winning innovation has met with outstanding feedback from the global integration community with its first production run selling out in record time, which pleases us greatly here at Kordz and supports and inspires us to do more.
Further to this, Kordz being a dynamic and technology-driven company, runs a lean operation that uses digital enablers to manage a global remote team and digital marketing and communications program that reduce the amount of travel and physical materials produced by the organisation wherever possible.
2. Reuse
If products are made well using better engineering, design, materials and manufacturing, they should be robust enough to stand the test of time and be repurposed. Kordz cables are designed to be reusable, even after multiple insertion cycles. For example, our R.3 and PRS4 HDMI Cables are engineered with diecast connectors that can withstand thousands of insertions, and our patch cords have a snap-proof latch that is tested to a minimum of 3,000 bend cycles. Our PRO and PRS keystone sockets and industrial field plugs are engineered with reusability in mind.
3. Recycle
Kordz makes it easier for customers to dispose of its product responsibly by using high quality Oxygen-Free Copper (OFC) that is more easily recycled and requires much less processing to be repurposed than cheaper grade copper. Kordz also uses recyclable paperboard cartons for its inner and outer carton packaging. Thanks to your excellent support of BeltPak, we are in the process of evaluating the rollout of this recyclable packaging solution across other products, along with other opportunities to reduce material consumption, and improve efficiencies and recyclability of packaging components across our product range.
How You Can Improve Your Environmental Impact as An Integrator Today
There are numerous things you and your team can do today to reduce your environmental impact by making incremental changes to the way you run your business and design your systems. This begins with fostering an environmentally-conscious business culture and continues by applying the golden rule of environmental sustainability. It’s something you can then stand proudly behind when customers and colleagues ask about your approach to environmental sustainability and may make your business more competitive for some projects where this is a consideration.
1. Reduce
We are all busy, stretched and prone to choosing convenience, so here we begin by interrupting the way we’ve always done things and asking, “How can I reduce the number of things I need and the amount of shipping involved, by working smarter, not harder?”. This could include planning ahead to more efficiently manage your inventory and purchasing, buying in bulk, and reducing the number of suppliers you use. You will quickly see that in improving your approach, it not only offers reduced environmental impact, but also potential cost savings that can increase your profitability.
Secondly, in an industry like ours, the current reality is that we create and use technology products that are resource and energy-intensive to manufacture. And so, one of the most important and powerful choices you can make is with your wallet: buying certified, quality, professional grade brands, like Kordz, that make future-ready products designed and engineered to last. After all, experience tells us that you really do get what you pay for, whether this is performance, reliability, ease of use, support or a benefit to the environment because it is done smarter.
When it comes to connectivity, many people have historically had a disposable attitude, willing to buy cheap cabling, plug and pray, and throw faulty items in the bin only to replace them with another. You can now understand how unnecessary and unhelpful this is for our environment and indeed, attitudes are changing. In choosing better products and educating your customers about the need for quality over quantity, it not only means your installations will perform better, reducing problems and callbacks on site, they will last longer, which places less burden on the environment and costs your customer less in failures and upgrades to replace components over the lifetime of that system. The side benefit is it will also save you the cost and hassle of having to fix it again.
2. Reuse
Don’t throw good cables away! Kordz products are made to be robust, so even if you throw them in a box and they get tangled, you should usually be able to repurpose them on another project; many of our rental and staging customers already do.
3. Recycle
Dispose of any possible materials in the correct recycling facilities and don’t just put them in the general waste bin for landfill. A quick Google search in your region will reveal programs and providers to better dispose of old cabling and electronics, such as Ecycle in Australia, Recycle Your Electronics in the UK, and Earth911 or Greener Gadgets in the USA.
In Conclusion: Our Hope for the Future
At Kordz, we are constantly researching and evaluating new approaches and better materials to improve our environmental impact while delivering the range of high-quality products our customers expect at prices that offer true value. We recognise that there is more work to do and hope that with the help of our innovative in-house former integrators, product development team and customers, who continually grow in number and offer great suggestions and feedback, that we can bring more holistic solutions to this market that allow you to make more environmentally responsible choices and demonstrate your commitment to your customers for their compliance, peace of mind and satisfaction, in line with the changing needs and values of our planet. We look forward to sharing more about our journey towards sustainability with you as it evolves and we invite your ideas and feedback any time – please send us a note here.
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