A measure of a supplier company’s environmental impact is conformity to ISO 14000 environmental management standards. These are aimed at minimizing how the manufacturing processes negatively impact the environment, at ensuring compliance with applicable laws and regulations, and at continuous improvement related to green practices. Manufacturers are certified by third-party organizations to document adherence to the standards.
Related to electronic products, the European Union has issued a directive on the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment, commonly referred to as the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive. RoHS compliance reflects a significant reduction in the use of lead and five other hazardous materials in manufacturing: mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl and polybrominated diphenyl ether.
Consider the Environment When Specifying Products
Some security and video surveillance system components are greener than others. The design of a product can suggest a greater or l
esser environmental impact during its manufacture. Smaller-sized products require less material processing when they are manufactured, conserve natural resources and ultimately produce less material to recycle or discard, while maintaining established performance and reliability standards.
In the field of video surveillance, cameras are getting smaller while their functionality is expanding. Smaller form factors enable use in a wider variety of applications, and their manufacture also has less of an impact on the environment. The use of more energy-efficient equipment options can also make a real difference, even related to low-voltage systems. For example, choosing a video camera that lowers power usage by 30 percent may equate to only several dollars worth of energy savings in a year, but the amount can start to add up in a campus-wide video system with scores of cameras.
Design Systems With Fewer Components
Every component in a security system had an impact on the environment when it was manufactured and will also likely have an impact at the end of its useful life. Creating systems with fewer components helps to minimize that impact.
For example, is it possible to minimize the number of servers a system needs? Can you use a network video recorder (NVR) that doesn’t require a separate PC? Could you reuse existing legacy video equipment, such as analog cameras, rather than rip out the old system completely and start from scratch?
Using a hybrid approach with video encoders enables this strategy, and reusing hardware helps to reduce waste (because the old hardware doesn’t have to be disposed of). Using “less” can also extend to technologies such as Power over Ethernet (PoE), which enables camera signals and power to the camera to be carried along a single cable.
Police, Security Must Do Their Part
Green awareness should permeate every part of our campus culture, including the security department. Security professionals, like all good citizens of the world, should develop a keen environmental consciousness, and look for ways every day to translate that consciousness into deed and action. Among other things, the security department should consider the environmental impact of technology choices and evaluate each supplier’s green record.
These ideas are just the beginning of how a security department can contribute to campus environmental efforts. Any progress in the greening of the security department must begin with a heightened consciousness of environmental concerns and attention to green issues. From that awareness might emanate a series of small, but real, changes that can contribute to an overall campus effort. More importantly, it can also contribute to a global-wide effort to change the world for the better.
System dependability and security integrity should never be compromised for the sake of the environment. Even so, there is ample room for security on any campus to work toward sustainability and toward the greater environmental good.
3 Ways You Can Help Security Go Green
1. Volunteer For Committees
Green concerns cut across every department and every stakeholder in the campus environment. Greening the campus is not one person’s job; it is everyone’s job. Working with colleagues in other departments, on campus-wide committees or related to special projects, is a great way for campus security to jump into environmentally friendly waters. Getting involved, however, takes time and commitment. No one really has the time, but we can all make the time if the need is important enough.
2. Benchmark With Other Departments
A campus-wide green edict affects every department, and there may well be other departments on the campus that have identified best practices that can be adapted to a security department’s operation, whether it involves paperwork minimization, two-sided printing or recycling waste. Don’t hesitate to pick the brains of the “green champions” on your campus and work toward becoming one yourself.
3. Work With Procurement and Suppliers
Those involved in procuring goods and services in the campus environment are more than likely well-versed in the idea of buying green. There is information in the marketplace about various suppliers and their green records. Procurement can evaluate that information and specify green elements as part of a purchase contract.
Bill Taylor is president of Panasonic System Networks Company of America.
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