Curbing E-Waste

The impetus for founding SAVe is the growing awareness that the issue of e-waste — among other aspects of the AV industry — needs to be addressed immediately. “We're going to be generating over 90 million metric tons of e-waste by 2030, the year that we are supposed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, and the vast majority of it goes into landfills and dumps. Less than 20% is actually officially recycled,” says De Bono. That’s why one of the core initiatives of SAVe is the SAVe: A Second Life program, which focuses on keeping products out of those landfills. “Is the equipment repairable? Can it be used in another facility, such as a school or nonprofit?” says Perez.

“Additionally, with SAVe: A Second Life, we've also started the SAVe AV Design Committee where we really try to get AV manufacturers, AV consultants, systems engineers, and technicians to implement best practices — down to producing fewer black boxes,” he notes. Some questions Perez offers for corporate self-reflection include: What does the customer actually need? Can you streamline a product to perform multiple functions and create more “all-in-one” solutions so you’re creating fewer total devices? “I think a great example of this kind of thinking is the Crestron DigitalMedia Presentation System Switcher, which reduces the number of components and cabling needed for a solution,” says Perez.

That awareness doesn’t stop at the factory, though. “We’re asking both installers and manufacturers to think about every aspect of a system, to look at everything from heat dissipation, daylight harvesting, configuration of on/off timers for equipment, as well as the number of cables they need,” says Perez. “We’re talking all the way down to the zip ties — if we can find a reusable product for that installation, then that's what we're going to lead with.”