WESTBOROUGH, MA May 5, 2023 – Security Engineered Machinery Co., Inc. (SEM), global leader in high security information end-of-life solutions, spent Thursday, April 27, 2023 walking up and down Walkup Drive in Westborough, MA, where their headquarters are located, picking up trash. 

The SEM Culture Committee, a group of voluntary employees that plan interactive philanthropic and team-building activities, partnered with the company’s ISO 14001 task force to collaborate on an event to honor Earth Day, an annually recognized day centered around environmental protection celebrated on April 22. 

“At SEM, we are committed to protecting our environment in a multitude of ways,” says Lara Rapport, SEM Director of Quality. “Our ISO 14001 certification as just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the continuous improvements we make in order to be as sustainable and environmentally conscious as possible.”

ISO 14001 is a familial set of standards developed in the mid-1990s to help organizations minimize how their operations negatively affect the environment (or cause adverse changes in air, water, or land), educating the organization on how to comply with applicable laws, regulations, and other environmental standards, and how they can sustain their efforts.

“Our cleanup initiative was something that our two groups had collaborated on as a way to not only educate our team on our ISO 14001 efforts, but also to really drive home the message that we can make serious change when it comes to our local environment,” says Amanda Canale, SEM Marketing Coordinator. 

The two teams worked closely with the Westborough Department of Public Works to coordinate the delivery of empty waste bags and the pickup of the collected trash. The cleanup event saw an attendance of over twenty employees, including company president, Andrew Kelleher. The cleanup activity is just the latest in the company’s detailed history of giving back to their local community, adding itself amongst the annual food bank and toy donations, and Operation Playhouse. 

“We have always prioritized events and activities that are both interactive and morale-boosting, and serve a philanthropic purpose, and this one was our most well-received yet. We will be making this an annual SEM tradition,” states Rapport.

For more information on Security Engineered Machinery’s environmental policy, visit here.