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At Plus Minus Solar we believe in sustainability and as well as retaining a social focus we make every effort to be environmentally sustainable too.

Unfortunately every product ever conceived has related impacts. Plus Minus Solar products strive to significantly outweigh any such impacts with the social and environmental benefits provided.

It’s a compromise of sorts, but when you purchase Plus Minus Solar you support a company committed to continued sustainable improvement. We do this by not only meeting, but also surpassing, current eco-guidelines, by practicing the following in-house polices:

More design, less stuff
We don’t need more mass-produced stuff; instead, we need less stuff, designed better. All products have an impact no matter how sustainable the company. We aim to maximise the consumer and environmental value of every product we produce, whilst limiting and reducing any impacts.

Sub-assembly based design
Everything works within systems and has countless links and connections to other products and components. The aim of sub-assembly design is to optimise these systems to improve efficiency, reliability, reparability, and recycling options. Any product is only as good as its weakest link.

Respecting well-being of our workforce
Sustainability is not just about the environment, but also the people within it. We ensure that we provide ethical and fair treatment for our entire workforce: maintaining human rights, safe working conditions and fair wages.

Extending product life through upgrade and reuse
Through our take back scheme, all our products are designed to have not only second lives but third, forth, fifth and sixth lives. In the words on Trigger from Only Fools and Horses… “This old broom has had seventeen new heads and fourteen new handles in its time, but still the same broom.”

Planning for obsolescence
We’re sorry but we have to admit no products last forever, not even ours! However, accepting this, we can plan for what to do with them when they do break down. This ensures that our products next life can be optimised and environmental impacts reduced.

User repair and maintenance
To us it seems ridiculous that full products are discarded due to a single component failure. What if that component could simply be replaced rather then the whole product, reducing cost and environmental impact. All our products are designed to maximise reparability, all you need is a screwdriver!

Disassembly
Ensuring that things are easy to take apart means that recycling can be optimised. The design of our products ensures that the different materials can be separated and filtered into their corresponding recycling waste streams with ease. No complex joining systems have been used and everything will come apart with the removal of just 4 screws.

Cradle-to-cradle
When you no longer have a use for our product, send it back to us and we will send it on to project countries. This makes sure the product isn’t lost to landfill after one cycle, but instead, repaired and used over and over again in project countries such as Uganda.

We make it – You use it – You send it back – We send it on.

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