In a nod to cleaner commutes, TDK in Peachtree City has set aside special parking spaces for hybrid vehicles, electric cars, motorcycles and those who are carpooling to Peachtree City with others.
Each of the premium spaces near the front entrance is marked with a sign, and also a painted green leaf insignia on the asphalt.
Three employees are driving their hybrids to work, and while no one has an all-electric car yet, there are plans to add a charging station to the mix when necessary. In the coming weeks, the company will have a “kickoff” picnic to celebrate the new spaces, and two electric automobiles will be on hand for employees to take a closer look at.
TDK is a member of the metro Atlanta Clean Air Campaign, a group that supports cleaner commuting options along with telecommuting when possible.
The company, which produces multilayer chip capacitors used in a variety of electronics, also has a significant track record for environmental achievements.
In 2008 the company was awarded a prestigious environmental award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for drastically cutting back on its water and electricity usage. The company’s water usage fell by 1.1 million gallons and the electrical usage was cut back by 1 million megawatts.
The company also changed its manufacturing processes to cut its use of caustic soda by more than half and also decreased its use of copper paste by 36 percent.
TDK was one of just four companies so honored by the EPA across the entire nation.
In 2010, the state of Georgia honored TDK for reducing its discharge of toxic substances into the water system by nearly 6 percent, its hazardous material use by nearly 10 percent, energy consumption by about 10 percent and total water use by 27 percent.
The company has its own water treatment plant on-site to eliminate metals from the water, returning it to the city’s sewer treatment system cleaner than it was when it entered the building from the county water system, TDK officials have said previously.
TDK’s multilayer chip capacitors are used in electronics ranging from smartphones to auto instruments. Cellphones have up to 200 capacitors each and auto instruments can have between 100 and 200, company officials have said.
One of TDK’s largest customer base is in the automotive industry, as the capacitors are used in a variety of ways, from the control units for the engine, airbag and air conditioning to the instrument cluster and even the keyless remote.
