Becoming a true sustainability partner October 2024

In the face of growing threats to the health of our planetary ecosystem, ClearTech has embraced our responsibility to protect the environment and advance sustainability by aligning ourselves with the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. In fact, we involved our entire organization in creating a sustainability plan and have published it on our website. 

ClearTech’s Christina DeBono discusses e-waste management.

There are two major outgrowths of our initial sustainability efforts. First, ClearTech’s leadership team founded the 501(C)3 non-profit SAVe, or Sustainability in AV. It’s the first industrywide, US-based organization with a mission to educate, unite and mobilize the AV sector to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Second, we have leveraged our knowledge to assist ClearTech clients in managing their technology infrastructures more sustainably. We did so, in part, because our clients started asking us to help facilitate the reuse, repurposing and responsible recycling of their equipment.

ClearTech founder and president Christina De Bono, who is also the co-founder and president of SAVe, talked about her company’s efforts to help clients minimize their environmental footprint.

Tell us a little about your journey to increased awareness about sustainability.

Christina: As a member of the audiovisual (AV) industry, ClearTech can have the greatest impact in helping our clients make progress toward SDG Goal 12, which aims to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

After all, our industry’s business model is essentially predicated on the constant refreshment and replacement of AV technology. The problem is, producing AV products requires increasingly scarce resources, and disposing of obsolete technology can exact significant damage to our planetary ecosystem.  

What can we do, then, to reduce the environmental footprint of technology? First, we can educate our clients about the issues they’re facing, and second, we can facilitate their efforts to do the right thing in regard to how they deal with old and obsolete equipment. The goal is simple: to use technology in a way that minimizes resource use and to dispose of end-of-life equipment in a manner that minimizes environmental damage.

So here are some of the services we offer our customers:

  • We provide important resources that are hard to find elsewhere, such as a SAVe QUICKSTART Guide to help organizations develop sustainability programs. 
  • Through our involvement in SAVe, we also facilitate SAVe Certification for industry members. You can find more details about that on the SAVe Resources Page.
  • We consult with customers about identifying equipment that can be reused and repurposed rather than simply replaced. 
  • We provide resources for the removal, reuse, repurposing and responsible recycling or and disposal of equipment. 

Is it difficult to recycle properly? 

There are definitely hurdles. You have to remember that the recycling industry is essentially unregulated, with few laws about how to recycle equipment and basically no penalties for recyclers who do not follow through on their stated procedures. Moreover, our government does not provide incentives or subsidies for recycling. 

Now consider the end user, or the organizations that have old equipment they need to get rid of. How can they know which recyclers are reputable and which aren’t?

Well, ClearTech is trying to help them. We’ve done extensive vetting of recyclers in southern California and have identified ones that actually walk the walk. For example, we’re big fans of Homeboy Industries in the Los Angeles area. This is a remarkable organization that serves high-risk, formerly gang-involved men and women with services and programs that help them get on a more stable path. One of those programs, Homeboy Electronics Recycling, is an award-winning, full-service IT asset disposition and electronics recycling company. They provide certified, secure and ethical solutions for electronics at the end of their life. 

We also partner with Apex Surplus, which provides scrap metal recycling and liquidation in Los Angeles County. They assist both businesses and individuals by providing sustainable and environmentally friendly solutions to prolong the life of recycled goods. 

So you do the work that your customers might not be able to do.

One would hope that the kind of resources we provide would be readily available to everyone, but that’s not yet the case. Consequently, we’ve found that our customers really appreciate the kind of help we can offer. The fact is, most businesses want to do the right thing. They just don’t know where to get started or how to follow through. That’s where we can help.

You said this was part of your culture of partnership, right?

One hundred percent. You know, we don’t force these resources on our clients. They’re asking for them. In many ways, ClearTech is just doing what we’ve always done: keeping our ears and eyes open to the needs of our clients and doing everything we can to make it easier for them to achieve their goals.