Friday Photo & Idea: Recycle E-waste for Your Tenants?
Most landlords we work with usually talk about the pressure to compete for and retain tenants when they explain why they are greening their buildings. And we see that the more successful landlords are those who go out of their way to find low or no-cost service offerings, which help their tenants to adopt sustainability practices within their own buildings.
Food for thought…helping tenants properly dispose of their e-waste can be one such practice that relieves them of a huge headache and is a big win for all involved.
Example in Photo: Japan
Yesterday while you were probably working away, Life Magazine caught this cool photo of workers at a Panasonic eco technology recycling facility in Kato, Hyogo Japan, processing e-waste.
In 2001, Japan enforced the Home Appliance Recycling Law (HARL), which calls for end-of-life home appliances to be recycled through the cooperation of consumers, retailers, and manufacturers.
At the Panasonic Eco Technology Recycling Facility Centre, approximately 700,000 home appliances such as televisions, air conditioners, washing machines and refrigerators are dismantled each year and 90% of these products are recycled [author's note: wow!].
I wonder what would happen for energy efficiency and community level sustainability, if more real estate developers and investors embedded direct e-waste recycling within their projects and/or neighborhoods? Some landlords here in San Francisco subcontract for this service to help their tenants. However, across the country and around the world, many overlook this particularly green opportunity.
There are lots of landlords that offer the multi-colored recycling office cans to their tenants, but leave tenants to deal with e-waste on their own.
That would be a great service offering for any asset class and market that eases tenants of a big burden and has real positive environmental impact.
