A question making the rounds in manufacturing circles is: What are you doing about sustainability?
It has extra resonance in the disposable glove industry. When it comes to sustainability, people have visions of gloves that, after use, disappear into the ether. (Cool idea, but still science fiction at this point.) There is a lot of chatter out there about gloves’ biodegradability or recyclability or compostability, but not nearly enough about how such efforts are essentially futile.
Let’s face it: These are disposable gloves we’re talking about. Their very nature belies any efforts to make them more earth-friendly.
Consider:
- Gloves that claim they are biodegradable can take 5 to 10 years in a landfill to break down, vs. decades for standard nitrile gloves. But biodegradation can emit greenhouse gases, and these products can release chemicals, toxic gasses, or microplastics and produce methane and carbon dioxide.
- Compostable gloves require a commercial composting facility, which may not be available in all areas.
- Recycling of gloves is often not possible due to contamination. Gloves can be contaminated with all manner of hazards including blood, chemicals, germs from raw food, and more, making them unsuitable for repurposing.
Buying any of these so-called “green” gloves may make no meaningful difference—but it sounds good.
So what has AIC done? Focused on environmental sustainability that can be measured, reported, and audited. Our reduction targets are aligned with climate science and focus on reducing emissions.
The Science Based Targets initiativehas approved AIC’s near-term, science-based emissions-reduction target: We have committed to a 42% reduction in our operational carbon emissions (from a 2022 baseline) by 2030.
This is an ongoing process
With validated targets in hand, we continue to look at areas where we can improve. Our sustainability committee, together with our outside consultants, is studying options and designing the best strategy for moving forward.
This is the first year we will have year-over-year greenhouse gas data to compare, and we will include this in our 2025 annual report along with an update on our sustainability activities.
We will emphasize being more efficient in shipping (despite there being no verifiable benchmark). We must measure things consistently for a long time, then use a third party to analyze the results.
Read further for more
You can learn more on our website or download our sustainability report.
Why are we choosing this route? Because we want to impact emissions in our supply chain, which we can directly control through our company actions, and continue to work with our manufacturers to reduce their impact, as this is where most emissions are generated.
