Yunus Mamoniat, Marketing Manager at ComNet, has spoken to SecurityNewsDesk about ComNet’s successful Go-Green Initiative and why the initiative is so important to fibre optic, Ethernet and wireless connectivity solutions providers.
“As an environmentally-conscious green company, ComNet takes great pride in doing all we can to preserve and protect the environment we live in,” Mamoniat said. “So we have adopted a company philosophy of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle and ComNet has made a concerted effort to design all our products to use as little power as possible. It might not sound like much, but reducing the power consumption by as little as a watt per product has a significant impact when thousands of ComNet products are being used.”
ComNet takes this ethos seriously, even when it comes to packaging. It makes no sense to dispose of perfectly good protective packaging when it can be reused, so according to Mamoniat, all ComNet packaging is made from recycled paper materials, instead of plastic based options, which makes it easier to dispose of, while the products themselves, including the metal enclosures, are returned to metal recyclers to be reused.
Mamoniat explained that there are several compelling forces driving the private and public sector to adopt a strategy for “greening” their communications networks wherever possible. The recognition that there is a finite amount of energy available for operating power, and a finite budget for operations, has made most organisations very aware that going green is a viable and practical way to optimise their networks by consuming less energy, reducing life-cycle costs and the overall cost of ownership, and implementing conservation measures to best serve the public good.
“We all know that ‘going green’ is something we should be doing to save and preserve resources for future generations,” he said. “ComNet decided to act upon this by incorporating environment-saving practices into our warehouse operations and factory processes.”
Reducing energy consumption is probably one of the most widely known green practices. Although it doesn’t sound significant, reducing the amount of power consumed by each ComNet product by as little as a watt has far-reaching consequences in terms of the total power being consumed in a large installation, Mamoniat insisted.
“One of the considerations put forth in the design of any product is to use the least amount of power possible,” he said. “This one criteria often goes unseen, but if you put a ComNet product next to any of our competitors, we consume significantly less power. It’s just another factor that ensures ComNet customers enjoy the lowest total cost of ownership compared to any other manufacturer.”
One of the more interesting options ComNet offers its customers as part of its Go-Green Initiative is the rack-configure service. With a customer’s installation plan, ComNet will install the components into the electronics rack before shipment, reducing the amount of product packaging and shipping volumes – reducing the overall carbon footprint of the shipment. This also proactively reduces customers’ costs by reducing labour required to configure the racks at the installation site.
Mamoniat pointed to five ways in which ComNet had achieved its green goals:
- Packaging: Reduced product packaging volumes by as much as 51% for its most shipped items with other products reduced by between 10% and 35%. In addition, all of packaging is now fully recyclable.
- Transport and Shipping: Reduced packaging volumes have allowed ComNet to reduce the cost of shipping.
- Operations: ComNet Europe’s UK sales and warehouse facility meets the latest in environmental building standards and operates energy saving features such as motion activated lighting and the latest in energy efficient heating and ventilation as well as a full recycling programme for all waste packaging materials.
- Electronics: ComNet products are designed using the latest in optical and electronic design. This enables its products to consume up to 50% less power than its competitors ensuring lower heat emissions and less cooling.
- Directive Compliance: ComNet products are fully RoHS compliant to the 2002/95/EC directive limiting the use of hazardous substances. ComNet operates a complete WEEE policy as per the 2002/96/EC directive which aims to reduce the amount of waste electrical and electronic equipment that ends up in landfill.
Mamoniat told us that the ComNet company mission is to advance communication technology on all media – copper, fibre optic and wireless. To achieve this the company is constantly designing new and improving existing products and solutions that do more that help protect the environment.
“With the introduction of our NetWave® wireless product line, we were getting requests for using it in very remote locations,” Mamoniat said. “These locations are so remote that no local power is available. This year we introduced our solar powered kits. Combined with our NetWave® product line we can transport IP video from locations once thought to be impossible. These solar power kits are tailored with different hours of available sunlight, storage capacity and required power considerations.”
ComNet are proving that it is not only viable but also advantageous to develop, innovate and grow while being environmentally friendly.
