As a leader in the industry and a champion of corporate responsibility beyond the workplace, we meet quality standards, minimize our overall impact on the environment and achieve key certifications. Awareness and action involving eco-practices include environmentally friendly structures, facility-wide recycling practices, energy-efficient lighting and collaboration with business partners who hold tightly to the same priorities for preserving our environment.

One initiative involves our Western Distribution Center in Dinuba, Calif. The building design incorporates a roof system that includes a reflective ceiling – and when combined with skylights and motion-sensor lights, will potentially result in an energy consumption reduction of 16 percent.

Also, the Central Distribution Center in Boone, Iowa, and Southeast Distribution Center in Jacksonville, Fla. (72,000 square feet and 47,000 square feet, respectively) converted office and warehouse lighting from mercury halide to fluorescent, which is brighter and environment-friendly.

For the over 20 combined facilities in the PLSI network:

• CO₂ emissions have been reduced by 630,344 pounds annually…that’s 286 metric tons a year
• Annual energy savings is equivalent to 32,442 gallons of gasoline, 664 barrels of oil, or the amount of electricity required to power 37.8 homes

For example, building materials are purchased with recycled content that includes recycled road base (used below building slabs) and suspended ceilings manufactured with recycled paper stock.

Corrugated shipping boxes contain 60-percent recycled content and are 100-percent recyclable. Support for recycling also includes:

• Office supplies made from recycled materials
• Recycling cardboard, plastic and aluminum collected throughout Patterson facilities
• Professional removal and disposal of hazardous waste
• Cardboard balers, recycling chutes and collection bins at individual workstations help ensure success of the recycling program

Each month, our Central Distribution Center (Boone, Iowa) alone recycles:

• 12.3 tons of cardboard
• 825 pounds of plastic wrap
• 1,124 pounds of paper

Additionally, Fill-Air^® inflatable cushions that protect products shipped to customers are manufactured by environmentally responsible Sealed Air Corporation and possess qualities that are:

• Designed for maximum protection with minimum material, which reduces required packaging
• Clear and resilient (low density polyethylene film) for easy order verification and less damage to shipped goods
• Reusable
• Designed to reduce original volume by over 90 percent due to deflatable capabilities prior to disposal
• Returnable for recycling to local Sealed Air facilities, as well as providing high-BTU energy contents in municipal incineration

A special Patterson Day learning adventure at Dodge Nature Center in West St. Paul, Minn., recognizes the Company’s support of the nonprofit nature center and its mission to advance environmental education and habitat restoration.