Environmental Sustainability

Interior photo of the Tek Pak Inc Tape and Reel facility with rolls and tables

Too Hot to Handle

For longer than most of us can conceive, humans have been carbonizing our planet, and for decades scientists have warned us of the resulting global climate change. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change, "it is undeniable that human actions have impacted the planet, resulting in the warming of the atmosphere, ocean, and land."

How to Tackle the Challenge

Environmental sustainability is the challenge we now face. Do we have the ability to maintain the ecological equilibrium of our environment and conserve what natural resources we currently have for generations to come? The overwhelming answer is YES. Every country has different regulations and interpretations, and some countries and states have much more restrictions than others. While there is no overall requirement, governments and people worldwide agree that we all must do our part.

Every company has a responsibility to do its share to help contribute to environmental sustainability. As the world economies continue to explode with the accompanying growth in GDP, the results lead to excessive energy consumption. Today, many leaders agree it is time to take a step back from that consumption and figure out a new way that is more environmentally friendly.

It will take environmental, social, and government changes to create sustainability. Many programs and regulations have been suggested, implemented, and in some cases, succeeded. In contrast, most have failed to gather the buy-in and momentum needed to truly make a difference. But the consensus is growing that we have already surpassed the breaking point for our planet where we can no longer sustain what we currently have built.

(Photo Credit: Karen Muehlfelt, Keeping Moments Photography)

Close up of laser trimmer finely cutting a thermoformed tool. Fire can be see from the heat

The Three Pillars

The result is a growing worldwide alarm, and countries like Canada have initially banned certain petroleum products. As we build towards trying to make up for the past and halting the continuing decreasing spiral, we need to look at three separate pillars of sustainability.

If we can find a way to work together to establish these three pillars, we may be able to build a sustainable environment for the future.

The future cannot be too hot to handle. Clearly, action must be taken now that is intentional, committed, and beyond all other measurements: effective. The global warming that we all face cannot be allowed to continue. Environmental sustainability is the most important component for our planet and our human species to survive.

A Clean Planet

Environmental safety includes our ecosystem's air quality and sustaining our resources to provide a clean and healthy environment.

Economic Development

Economic development builds an economy that does not compromise future generations but maintains our current financial benefits. 

Social Development

Social development, social fulfillment, and continual access to end poverty and hunger can only be accomplished by improving education and healthcare standards and sanitation and water quality. 

Tek Pak's Commitment to Environmental Sustainability

Tek Pak has long been committed to recycling and repurposing. Any unused material, edges, trims, and cutouts of parts produced here are recycled. We often use customer-provided material, and those scraps are returned to the customer for recycling and reuse. Any recyclable material that is not returned to a customer is then sent to a local recycler here in the Fox Valley. Those materials are then recycled into pellets and are then returned to Tek Pak. The recycling circle is then completed, and those pellets are used in our extrusion process and made into carrier tape. 

Repurposing started when Tek Pak was founded back in the '90s. The first carrier tape machine ever built was in itself a total repurposing of other machines, parts, bolts, etc., all harvested from other equipment that was no longer in use. That tradition remains today, and any equipment, even office furniture, is stored and then repurposed whenever possible to fill a current need.

Recycling unused portions of materials and saving items to be used in a new way are good starts, but they are by far not enough. Recently, the leadership team at Tek Pak agreed and committed to a ten-year goal to ensure that Tek Pak will have a zero carbon footprint by 2033. While 2033 seems to be eons away, it isn't. To start the journey to this vital goal, all buildings in which Tek Pak operates are scheduled for complete energy audits and recommendations by a third party. The results of those reports will guide the remodeling and refurbishing schedule to start later in 2023. Tek Pak also has plans to ensure that any vehicle purchased by the company will have to be energy efficient, and eventually, all will operate using an alternative power source.

These are the first positive steps, with many more to come and many more that will be needed to ensure that Tek Pak has a zero carbon footprint by 2033.

(Photo Credit: Karen Muehlfelt, Keeping Moments Photography)

Side view of lots of inventory boxes that are brown and made of cardboard, wrapped in a form of plastic shrink wrap