Last month on April 22nd it was Earth Day, so it is no wonder why the Green Movement is a number one topic. We are all conscious about it, but we are all still trying to learn the different ways that we can leave a smaller carbon footprint – both at home and on our jobs. The concept of being green is important.

There are many types of companies from small businesses such as an artist, to various sized corporations, and even to the government, each are being driven by family, friends, business associates, even politicians, to help plan for the future of our environment. There are a number of frustrations.

One problem for companies who are selling or distributing CD or DVD based products is that many people do not know specifically what to do to render a smaller footprint. For example, many people do not know that the energy efficient light bulbs cannot be tossed in the garbage. That’s illegal in the state of California because they contain mercury! They must be discarded properly at a recycling facility.

Acutrack focuses on talking to our clients in detail in the beginning to seek possible eco friendly solutions. We talk with them about their goals, audience, and even time constraints, of where their products will be delivered and how long it takes -- all of which have an impact on going green. We also help them to look for redundancies and eliminate environmentally inefficient steps.

Basically, the way we do this is to focus on the three R’s: Reduce Recycle and Reuse. Reduction: We are in the business of optical media, which in itself is very good for the environment. There’s no paper printing involved in optical media.

One example is that we recently helped a client who ships parts manuals to 780 dealers. These 4,000 page catalogs of parts used to be really heavy and expensive to ship. We came up with a DVD ROM where we scanned the manuals and created a DVD ROM with a searchable index. The cost went from $136.00 to $3.00 each, and the job went much faster too. We produced them in nine versus 14 days. Shipping used to cost $11.00 each for postage with UPS Ground and that went to .58 cents each with the U.S. postal service. We saved a lot of trees, and electricity. Overall the DVD ROM left a much smaller footprint. Dealers were thrilled with the searchable index because it takes them less time to find the parts.

Our On Demand Production model also allows customers to have zero inventory, meaning lots less waste and less obsolescence. Acutrack’s On Demand Production is a system that allows our customers to manufacture CDs and DVDs on an as needed basis, eliminating the up-front costs normally associated with CD/DVD production. We create custom CDs and DVDs one at a time and ship them world-wide directly to your clients.

For more information visit the Cal/EPA Education Web site for information on environmental education programs, environmental health hazards and pesticides.