USAT's Environmental Commitment

Our company is composed of employees that are very concerned about preserving the earth for our children's children. Because of our stewardship responsibilities as good world citizens, we have committed to finding innovative and effective ways to conserve, recycle, and mitigate our impact on the planet. At USAT we have in place, or are pursuing corporate programs that:

• Conserve water, paper, and fossil fuels.
• Recycle and re-purpose bent metal mounts, older computers and communications technologies.
• Mitigate our usage of fossil fuels by encouraging alternate forms of transportation, improving lumens per watt with our lights, reducing electric usage, and heating or cooling our office space more efficiently.

CONSERVE

1. In 2011, we completed a conversion of over 135 florescent ballasts used with office lights. By switching to new, high efficiency electronic ballasts and matched bulbs we have decreased electric consumption by 30-35%.
2. In 2011, we replaced all incandescent exit signs and emergency lighting with high efficiency LED based lights. The exits signs consume electricity 24 x 7 x 365. The switch to LED dropped consumption from 40 watts to 4 watts; a 10 fold decrease in consumption.
3. Smart Thermostats. USAT has installed smart scheduling thermostats throughout our facilities. With these we are able to reduce HVAC demands when offices are vacant. In 2011 we updated all scheduling thermostats to wireless scheduling thermostats. This enables us to even more precisely manage the thermostats leveraging the power of the internet cloud for conservation.
4. Energy Star 5 Requirement. As of 2011, all computer monitors purchases are required to meet or exceed the Energy Star 5 designation. These monitors are LED backlit, have non-use sleep modes and are tested and certified to consume less electricity. Traditional LCD displays we have replaced under this initiative consumed 75-85 watts, while their replacements consume 15-20 watts; a five-fold reduction in electricity consumption.
5. Paperless Office Initiative: In 2006, USAT transformed into a paperless office. This initiative provided guidelines to phasing out paper usage at USAT wherever plausible. Our Accounting Department is mandated to request paperless invoicing via EFT with our clients, and to use digital forms internally. In addition, USAT provides quotes to clients digitally, using Adobe Acrobat forms. Marketing materials are also mandated to be digital, instead of paper, whenever possible. Printouts are used sparingly, and when possible are printed in duplex-front and back- to reduce paper usage.
6. Preference for Diesel Fueled Vehicles for high mileage equipment. USAT has standardized our van purchases on Mercedes Turbo-Diesel Sprinters. This decision was driven by gas mileage metrics, in order to make sure that our company was doing its part to conserve fossil fuels.
7. Low Flow Toilet Plan. USAT replaced our toilets in our corporate headquarters with modern, “low-flow” toilets to reduce water usage by 40%.
8. Incandescent Lighting Switch-out. In 2008, USAT replaced all recessed incandescent lighting in our headquarters with compact florescent fixtures. In 2011, USAT replaced dimmable incandescent with dimmable LED lights, cutting the wattage from 50 watts to 8 watts with each bulb.

RECYCLE

1. Equipment Recycling. Many times, USAT is tasked with updating older field computing systems with new products that our clients purchase from us. We are committed to keeping old technology from the land-fill. For minimal fees, USAT will remove from our clients' premises and recycle old vehicle computing technology, and bent metal technology mounts. We carefully scrub all hard drives to comply with our clients' privacy concerns.
2. Laptop Donation. USAT Corp. has collected many ruggedized laptops from customers during upgrades. We refurbish, rebuild, and update the OS, and gift some of these laptops to different social organizations such as the YMCA and the Human Rights Center. The units are given a new purpose and are not in a landfill, while benefiting people who otherwise may not have access to computers.

MITIGATE

1. In 2011, USAT pursued a Lumens-Per-Watt Improvement Program. In this we switched out 270 40watt T-12 style florescent bulbs for new, more efficient 28 watt T-8 bulbs resulting in equal light volume with decreased consumption.
2. As of 2011 over 95% of our invoices now deliver electronically. This reduces paper consumption, ink consumption, printer replacement, and trips to the post office.
3. Renewable Material Flooring. When a new floor was needed in our conference facility in 2006, we used a woven grass carpet, which is a readily renewable resource. The material did not withstand a subsequent water leak, and we replaced it with a bamboo hardwood floor. Another readily renewable resource.
4. Bicycle Hub. USAT's corporate headquarters are located in Chapel Hill, NC, a town that is very forward-thinking. Chapel Hill's Blue Urban Bikes (BUB) Hub initiative provides bicycles to its citizens free of cost, in order to encourage people to ride bikes instead of driving in cars. The way the program works is that the bikes are left at various high-traffic hubs and you ride the bike anywhere you want but are morally obligated to drop it off at a Hub once you are done with it. USAT Corp. is an ideal BUB Hub since our office is located in the urban center. The hub location is administrated out of USAT's corporate office.
5. HVAC Impact Reduction Initiative. USAT's corporate server room emits so much heat that air-conditioners are required to keep the room cool, even during cold winter months. In order to mitigate the waste of this heat, USAT has designed a duct and fan system that removes the heat from the server room during the winter time and funnels it out to the offices nearby. This effort to capture the heat created by the servers saves on energy bills and helps USAT reduce fossil fuel usage. During warmer months, we now use ducting to funnel the heat from the servers out of the cooled office space, which keeps the room 10 degrees cooler, reducing the amount of time per day the Air Conditioning system must run.