WILLIAMS AV
Our Commitment to Sustainability
Reliable Products. Responsible Choices. Shared Future.
At Williams AV, our mission is to improve the lives of people with hearing loss, language barriers, and communication challenges. That sense of responsibility to the people and communities we serve extends naturally to the environment. We are committed to operating in a manner that reduces our ecological footprint while continuing to deliver the reliable, high-quality products our customers depend on.
Responsible Product Design
We design our products with both performance and environmental responsibility in mind. Choices made during the product development process have lasting environmental consequences, and we take those choices seriously.
- Energy-efficient sleep modes. Many Williams AV products are equipped with automatic sleep modes that significantly reduce power consumption during periods of inactivity. This reduces the energy footprint of our systems throughout their operational lifetime across thousands of installations worldwide.
- Product longevity. We design our products to be durable, reliable, and long-lasting. Products that remain in service longer require fewer replacements, reducing the cumulative environmental impact associated with manufacturing, packaging, shipping, and disposal.
- LED technology in Infrared products. Our infrared (IR) assistive listening systems utilize more energy-efficient LED emitters compared to older emitter technologies. These LEDs deliver superior signal coverage while drawing less power, benefiting both the environment and our customers’ operating costs.
- Environmental compliance. All Williams AV products are designed to comply with the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive and other applicable environmental regulations. We actively monitor regulatory requirements and work to ensure our products and supply chain meet or exceed applicable standards. We are committed to responsible sourcing and work with our supply chain to avoid the use of conflict minerals from regions where their extraction finances armed conflict.
American Manufacturing
Williams AV designs and manufactures the majority of our products at our facility in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Domestic manufacturing enables us to maintain direct oversight of quality, working conditions, and environmental practices throughout the production process.
Many of our key products, especially more complex and physically larger products are produced domestically, keeping supply chains shorter and reducing the environmental impact of long-distance international freight for these products as they ship to our large home market.
Packaging
We are committed to minimizing packaging materials wherever feasible without compromising the protection our products require in transit. Our ongoing efforts include:
- Replacing printed manuals with small QR code cards referencing online materials. In addition to reducing printed materials, this also means that our customer base will always have access to the most updated information.
- Reducing unnecessary inserts, filler materials, and redundant packaging components where product protection allows.
- Evaluating opportunities to incorporate more sustainable packaging materials as our product lines evolve.
- Right-sizing packaging to reduce material use and improve freight efficiency.
Logisitics and Freight
Transportation is a meaningful contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, and we take deliberate steps to reduce the environmental impact of our global distribution.
Sea freight preference: Where delivery timelines allow, Williams AV utilizes sea freight rather than air freight for international product and component shipments. Sea transport produces significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions per unit shipped compared to air freight, and we prioritize this mode whenever it is operationally practical.
Our Facilities and Operations
At our Eden Prairie headquarters and manufacturing facility, we work to reduce the environmental impact of our daily operations.
- Recycling: We maintain active recycling programs covering paper, cardboard, metals, and electronic waste. Proper disposal and recycling of electronic components and materials is a priority, consistent with our commitment to minimizing waste sent to landfill.
- Reducing our paper footprint: We design new workflows to avoid printing and are moving from physical filing. We also use mainly digital assets and documents for marketing, customer communication and order processing and follow-up.
- Continuous improvement: We regularly evaluate opportunities to improve the energy and environmental performance of our facilities and manufacturing operations.
Our Ongoing Commitment
We recognize that sustainability is a continuous journey. Williams AV will continue to evaluate our products, processes, packaging, and supply chain for opportunities to reduce our environmental impact. We are committed to being transparent about both our progress and the areas where we continue to work toward improvement.
Williams AV is a proud U.S. manufacturer and a mission-driven company. We are committed to making communication accessible to all people — and to doing so in a way that respects the world
we all share.
