'Green' Gains Steam
The eco-friendly movement hits the security world
- By Megan Weadock
- Jun 01, 2008
In 1999, it was Y2K. Chad won in 2000.
Each year, members of the American
Dialect Society choose the word of the
year, a word that had enough impact to
summarize the year as a whole. Last year,
not surprisingly, it was subprime. My guess
is that 2008’s word will be the one that is
everywhere right now: green.
Consumers are jumping on the ecofriendly
bandwagon like never before,
and that demand is driving some exciting
innovation in nearly every industry. In the
security field, two well-known companies
are ahead of the curve, providing their
customers with products that fit in nicely
with the growing green trend.
Earth-friendly ID
Brady People ID, headquartered in
Burlington, Mass., provides access control
products to a variety of industries.
This year, the company introduced its
Eco-Friendly Family of products, which
includes lanyards, badge holders, strap
clips and PVC cards that are manufactured
using environmentally friendly
techniques and materials.
“Our company alone produces more
than 50 million strap clips per year,” said
Janet Frenner, marketing communications
manager for Brady People ID. “We also
manufacture millions of badge holders and
lanyards. Making these products available
as biodegradable is a step in the right
direction to help reduce products that sit in
landfills forever. We need to help companies
think green and make it easy for them
to find Earth-friendly products.”
The company’s eco-friendly lanyards
are made of bamboo fiber, which can
degrade naturally and don’t cause environmental
pollutants. The eco-friendly
badge holders and strap clips, manufactured
with recyclable ethylene-vinyl
acetate material, are durable, environmentally
friendly and RoHS compliant.
The new Eco-Friendly PVC card is a
non-crude oil alternative. Made of corn,
a renewable energy resource, the cards
are compatible with commercial recycling
programs but are virtually identical
to Brady People ID’s traditional
plastic cards.
A Growing Demand
As international attention continues to
focus on environmental issues, the supply
of green products—and the innovation
customers are seeking—is catching
up to demand.
“We developed these products because
our customers asked for them,” Frenner
said. “It was their feedback and recommendations
that led to their creation.
Businesses should take the lead and provide
security products to visitors and
employees that are Earth-friendly.”
One company that has embraced its
role as a green leader has been ecofriendly
for years. Sun Surveillance Inc.,
located in Spartanburg, S.C., was founded
in 2004. The company set out to provide
security integrators with a wireless
solar-powered surveillance camera system
for remote surveillance.
“The founders conceived an idea that
would provide a solution to both homeland
security and alternative energy, two
of the fastest growing concerns nationally,”
said Todd Wright, director of sales for
Sun Surveillance.
The result was SolsticeCam, a solarpowered
camera system that can be
installed where digging and trenching are
infeasible or too costly. The stand-alone
camera system operates on solar power
and transmits video data wirelessly to a
convenient location where video can be
monitored and recorded.
“We hadn’t envisioned all the seemingly
endless uses SolsticeCam would
provide,” Wright said. “Customers were
inquiring about SolsticeCam providing
wireless video monitoring for applications
including agriculture, highways,
construction sites, ranches, pipelines and
even residential applications.”
The Earth-friendliness of the system,
however, had been a major factor for the
company’s founders all along.
“The impact has been considerable
when you consider, for example, the
preservation of protected geographical and
wildlife areas,” Wright said. “SolsticeCam
has allowed parks, wildlife sanctuaries and
reserves to monitor these areas for trespassing,
illegal waste dumping, vandalism
and crowd control, which would been previously
out of the question.”
In these cases, the wildlife authorities
were unwilling or unable to dig and
trench through protected areas, making
SolsticeCam the perfect fit. Because they
are solar powered, the systems do not
contribute to CO2 emissions. They also
further prevent CO2 emissions by eliminating
the need to operate gas-powered
machinery that is used for digging and
trenching fiber-optic cable lines.
“When we launched SolsticeCam,
terms such as ‘green’ and ‘eco-friendly’
or ‘environmentally friendly’ were commonplace,”
Wright said. “One question at
hand was how consumers’ ever-increasing
focus on eco-friendly products would
impact their decisions.”
An Eco-conscious Future
Today, it’s clear that many people’s ecoawareness
is playing a significant role in
their lifestyles. Both Sun Surveillance
and Brady People ID plan to continue to
make the most of this trend while helping
the environment along the way.
“Although the security and wireless
technology is continuously changing,
providing solar power for these systems
remains fundamental,” Wright said. “Sun
Surveillance proactively researches the
latest security technology that allows
solar-powered solutions to be provided.”
In addition to solar-powered surveillance,
Wright said the company also will
provide wind-generated power systems
along the coastal regions for an even
more cost-effective solution.
As for Brady People ID, its Earthfriendliness
is just getting started.
“Brady People ID has just begun to
open the door to fill the need in this market,”
Frenner said. “Taking this green initiative
has only made us stronger by being
able to broaden our product line.”