American’s Green Policies & Efforts

As a company, American’s efforts to reduce our carbon footprint have been focused on recycling, reducing our energy consumption and investing in more environmentally friendly vehicles.

By recycling, we can greatly reduce the amount of materials that end up in landfills.   
In the past year, American has taken the following steps to positively impact our environment:

• Recycling of over 800 tons of cardboard.  This equals out to more than 4,000 pounds a day of cardboard that was not send to the landfill!
• Recycling of nearly 10,000 wooden pallets.  These pallets are sold to a service that either repairs the pallet for resale or turns the pallet into woodchips that are used in commercial landscaping projects.
• Recycling of roughly 24,000 appliances.
• Recycling of over 8,800 spotlights, and almost 2,000 fluorescent bulbs.  In addition, any bulbs still containing mercury are sent to a recycling center for proper handling and disposal.
• Selling our used bedding to a recycler/reseller.  In the last year, over 3,000 pieces of bedding went to a reseller/recycler.  This equates to about 30 truckloads of bedding that did not go to the landfill! 
• Since implementing a consumer electronic recycling program in the summer of 2009, American has collected on average over 50,000 pounds of old electronics per month and turned them over to our recycling partners for responsible recycling. In addition, the American AEF Transport Fleet plus all of our independent contractors, where required, are licensed under the “Safe Transport” provision. This designation ensures the safe and proper transport of items for recycling to the collector or recycler.

Did you know that 30% of energy in buildings is used inefficiently or unnecessarily?  Simple acts such as adjusting temperatures and using high-efficiency light bulbs significantly reduce the amount of energy that is wasted.

American’s energy conservation efforts include:

• Using energy management software to control the temperatures of our stores.  The software powers up or down during non-peaks times so energy is not wasted on unnecessary heating and cooling. 
• Reducing lighting kWh in our Milwaukee Distribution Center.  We are in the middle of a three-year program that will reduce the lighting kWh by over 40%.  This change includes using the newer, more efficient energy ballasts and pulse start technology that lets the feature go into sleep mode.  In sleep mode, the energy output is reduced to 25% until a motion sensor detects activity and pulses the fixture back to 100% output.    

On an average day the cars in America are estimated to use over 200 million gallons of gasoline. Investing in more efficient vehicles that use less gasoline as well as emit less CO2 into the atmosphere greatly lessens the impact of transportation on our environment. 

American’s efforts to conserve fuel and reduce transportation pollution include:

• Replacing the full size vans in our service department with smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles.  The change of 51 vehicles last year saved over 32,000 gallons of gas.  During its lifetime at American, the new vehicle’s CO2 emissions will be reduced by about 24,000 pounds.
• Replacing our semi tractors over the next two years with new low emission, higher fuel-efficient engines that use ultra low sulfur diesel fuel. The new engines will result in:
• Reduced sulfur emissions
• 50% reduction in nitrogen oxides
• 90% reduction in particulate matter emissions
• 2% gain in fuel economy.

In addition to the steps already taken, American is constantly looking for additional ways to positively impact our environment. Additional efforts include:

• Continuing to take a leadership position in the display and sales of Energy Star products.
• Encouraging the viewing of internal reports electronically to reduce printing.
• Implementing an on-line job application and on-line initial- interview process to further reduce paper use.
• When printing and photocopying is necessary, encouraging 2-sided printing and copying as well as the purchasing of recycled paper.
• Encouraging the use of energy saving modes with office equipment and computers.

American is committed to being a responsible corporate citizen when it comes to taking care of our environment. We encourage our employees and our customers to join us in this effort.