SparkFun Sustainability Effort

We're working on being more sustainable. Have any ideas?

For years, Sparkfun has been actively participating in sustainable practices. In the past, these endeavors have not been documented and shared very well, but recently we have ramped up our efforts! For example, we are now composting, recycling Styrofoam and plastic bags, along with regular single stream items, e-waste, and cardboard. We also filter and re-use the water of our closed-loop circuit board washer so no pollutants enter nearby waterways! However, the most exciting advances in our sustainability efforts has to be the group of committed individuals who participated in our kickoff event this past Friday, the 20th.

The Styrofoam recycling location - complete with glowing sign (made from remnant acrylic and salvaged wood).

The competition was about creating a proposal related to sustainability and SparkFun. In other words, pretty wide open. Representatives from 10 for Change were there to help judge, and the winner received $500. We had six entries that day and numerous other ideas in the works. It was very inspiring to see people working toward the goal of making SparkFun a more sustainable place and see all their ingenuity at work.

The winning entry came from the Human Resources Department, with Sallie and Kristen leading the presentation. We are now paperless when it comes to paychecks, payments to some companies, and invoices. Also, Production is switching to paperless build sheets and time sheets. We are saving roughly 250 pounds of paper in Human Resources and 150 pounds in Production per year and saving $4,100 annually! Some other projects included:

• Pamela and Joel: Improving eWaste at Sparkfun and the community, and creating a better ding-and-dent system.
• Randy, Joel and Mike: Energy monitoring project, including building a cheaper and easy to build kill-o-watt like device.
• Lara: Creating unique signage for Sparkfun's waste streams! Awesome pictures and detailed descriptions of the items, with spiffy color-coordination.
• Randy: Hard to recycle day for Sparkfun employees, including a 'swap' and 'fix it' table.
• TJ: Educating new hires with a short, informational, and entertaining video about recycling, composting, and hard to recycle materials.
• Pearce: Investigating more sustainable packaging materials.

TJ showing off his presentation skills.

Needless to say all of these proposals are fantastic, and we are working on making them a reality. If you have a great idea for us, I (or we?) would love to hear about it - leave any ideas or suggestions in the comments below. Thanks!