Bridgewater-based Brother International Corp. has partnered with Clean Ocean Action as a sponsor of the 37th Annual Beach Sweeps Event. The partnership includes sponsorship of two Covid-compliant beach sweeps events open to the public of New Jersey and a Virtual Lunch and Learn hosted by Clean Ocean Action.
In addition, on Earth Day, Brother employees will be making their annual ‘Brother Earth Promise,’ an individual commitment to help protect the environment, such as addressing pollution by recycling and cutting their use of single-use plastics, amongst other efforts.
“I am proud to see Brother employees rally around our environmental activities and Brother Earth Promise, and I am thrilled to see a collective effort to address the urgent global climate change crisis across our organization,” said Don Cummins, president, Brother International Corporation. “While we think globally, we must also act locally, and our sponsorship of Clean Ocean Action activities in New Jersey will help ensure that our own shores are free from ocean plastics and pollution.”
Brother’s partnership with Clean Ocean Action builds on Brother’s existing flagship environmental programs such as their Recycling Program for printers and ink cartridges, employee volunteer activities supporting the Friends of the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey for the past ten years.
“COA and Brother’s partnership began last year when they participated in two Corporate Beach Sweeps at Sandy Hook, which was an impactful experience for their team members,” Alison Jones, Watershed program manager, Clean Ocean Action said in an email. “We were honored and delighted when they became a statewide sponsor for our 2022 Beach Sweeps. It was a pleasure to have Brother be a part of the Spring Beach Sweeps, which were hosted at a record 75 locations, and we look forward to their enthusiastic participation again in the Fall!”
Brother considers the environment at all stages of a product’s life cycle, from development, design, and manufacturing to use, disposal, and reuse, as the social responsibility of a manufacturing company. In fact, over the past 5 years (2016-2020), carbon emissions across Brother Americas have been reduced by 9.7% and over 30% since 2012. Brother has remanufactured more than 5.5 million toner cartridges (2017-2021) and recycles more than 99% of its waste, with less than 1% of waste going to landfills. Brother has also supported biodiversity conservation and restoration activities across the Americas with $650,000 donated, 159,369 trees planted (US/CAN), and 26,843,750 sq. ft. of rainforest protected in Guatemala through a partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation.
“Brother strives to positively and continuously act to decrease the environmental impact and increase the sustainability of our business operations in alignment with the Brother Group globally,” says Vickie Berry, manager of Environmental, Health and Safety. “The Brother Group aims to achieve carbon neutrality in all business operations and minimize CO2 emissions from the entire value chain by 2050 so as to contribute toward creating a carbon-free society.”
