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Doing More with Less
A Company's Obsession With Not Throwing Things Out
January 31st, 2008
Los Angeles, CA - January 31, 2008 - Everyone has a cell phone or two sitting in a drawer that they aren't using but don't know what to do with. A growing part of the modern dilemma is dealing with the gadgets that have lost their shine but shouldn't be thrown out. Flipswap Inc. (http://www.flipswap.com) aims to relieve this mounting pressure by offering a trade-in value for these unused devices. "Recycling feels good", says Sohrob Farudi, Flipswap CEO, "but, I'm not ashamed to say that getting paid to recycle is a great motivator for people. I love vegetables, but if I got paid to eat Brussels sprouts, I'd eat more." With a business model founded on reducing ewaste, it's not hard to understand why the culture at Flipswap revolves around keeping green.
Flipswap Inc. started in 2005 with simple web based service for mobile phone retailers. Today Flipswap employs nearly 60 people across the US and offers five services built around the idea that cell phones and other devices have more than one life. This focus on sustainability stems from the Farudi family motto,"Do more with less, until you can eventually do everything with nothing." Sohrob can often be found on the loading dock of Flipswap's Los Angeles facility poking through the trash looking for something that can be reused and asking employees, "Any ideas about how we can reuse this?"
This focus on sustainability has spread across the growing company. Weekly employee gatherings called "Green Hours" are the sandbox for all kinds of new ideas about reusing office items, community green projects and reducing the company's carbon footprint. These "Green Hours" and other employee driven ideas have nearly halved the company’s paper waste in the last year and done the same for the carbon foot print which is currently comparable to a company about twice the size of Flipswap.
These 'green' initiatives have lead Flipswap to become an EPA Wastewise partner, and they are now helping many of their business partners get on a more sustainable path. Many of Flipswap's established business to business services put them in a great position to lead by example and educate partners on how greener business practices can add value for customers.
Until the Farudi family motto is achieved and they can finally 'do everything with nothing,' Flipswap is committed to offsetting its carbon footprint by financially supporting reforestation programs and renewable energy research. When phones can not be reused and must be recycled, Flipswap insists that this be eco-friendly as well. These devices are all carefully inspected, processed, and recycled in accordance with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001 certification, a voluntary standard that facilitates improved environmental business management. Additionally, Flipswap plants a tree for every phone that is sent to the recycler. In 2008 Flipswap is projecting to plant 25,000 trees.
Though the team at Flipswap recognizes that global change begins at home, their primary focus remains reducing the number of cell phones that end up in landfills around the world. Through education and a number of services that provide great incentives for reusing or recycling old mobile phones, Flipswap aims to provide more sustainable ewaste disposal options for consumers and business.
About Flipswap
Flipswap (http://www.flipswap.com) makes it easy to give mobile phones a second shot at life by offering fast, free and eco-friendly ways to trade them in. The average American buys a new cell phone every 12 months, which means more than one hundred million perfectly good phones become unused, unwanted, and unloved every year. To help maximize the useful life of each phone, Flipswap created a unique way of collecting them so they could be put back into use. Now, instead of being thrown in a drawer or in the trash, cell phones can be traded in for instant store credit at one of over 4,000 participating Flipswap retail locations or traded-in online. In 2007 alone Flipswap put enough phones back into use to keep the equivalent of 50 tons of solid waste, most of it toxic, out of landfills. So, whether you’ve got one old phone in a drawer at home or a warehouse of overstocked or returned handsets, Flipswap’s family of services will pay you to be one of the good guys. It has never been this easy to be green! For more information, please visit Flipswap on the web at www.flipswap.com.