Harbor's Unflagging Commitment to the Environment
One area of the company of which I am most proud is our commitment to creating an environmentally friendly and sustainable product. We operate in a suburban neighborhood in Orange County, California where the quality of the environment, and the quality of life, is highly prized. We have a church located kiddy-corner from our headquarters site and an elementary school located less than a block away. Welcome to the southern California environs.
We at Harbor believe in a clean environment and helping to keep it that way. A decade ago, we had the foresight (though we swallowed hard at the time) to invest in an expensive VOC (emissions) abatement system that completely encapsulates our paint booths and burns off 92-98% of the emissions generated from painting our bodies. In fact, we are so emission compliant that Harbor was removed completely from EPA Title V compliance governed by our local Air Quality Management District locally known simply as the AQMD. According to the AQMD, we are a “model” of how Southern California companies should operate in terms of eliminating their Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) emissions.
I also am pleased to report that we utilize or recycle over 99% of our raw materials. Virtually all drop-off or excess metal is recycled. Steel and other similar metals are some of the most recyclable raw materials known. For example, major notable steel mills like Nucor use scrap metal as their primary source of raw material to create new steel. Lastly, we are compliant with all other agencies whose job it is to monitor environmental quality.
While we operate in a highly regulated environment, we have utilized our resources to proactively transform our company into one of the more environmentally conscientious companies in our industry. I am truly proud to have played a role in making our company more environmentally friendly.
Ken Lindt, President (and Avid Fly Fishing Enthusiast)