recognition for green change at Geberit
Aylesford. Geberit in the UK has been presented with the ‘The Green Supplier of the Year’ award at the prestigious ‘Construction News Green Awards 2007‘ for demonstrating its commitment to affecting positive change to the environment.
The firm has been working towards environmental change since the 1990′s and established sustainability as a central theme. Its code of conduct for handling resources has enabled the company to save water and energy and reduce wastes and hazardous substances. In addition, Life Cycle Assessments (LCA’s) are carried out on its products to ensure all developments are environmentally friendly.
Waste and internal recycling are crucial to the company and. For example, the company avoids the disposal of plastic wastes by collecting, milling and reusing 100% of the waste parts in the production process. HDPE itself is recommended by Greenpeace as an environmentally friendly alternative to other pipe systems as it consumes less energy during manufacture and transport when compared to cast iron.
The firm also participates in the Climate Change Levy to improve energy efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions. During 2004 – 2006, their emissions of greenhouse gases fell by 8% and by 2009, the company aims to achieve a cumulative 15% reduction compared with 2006. Over the past two years, absolute environmental impact has been reduced by 18% each year.
Since 2002, the company has been listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, making it a European Leader in Sustainability, recently echoed in January 2007 when it was awarded a combined Group Quality and Environment Certificate as per ISO 9001 and ISO 14001.
To ensure that the environmental ethos is shared by all employees, it holds Eco-design workshops to emphasise the importance of choosing environmentally friendly materials and ensuring a high efficiency of resources is achieved.
Mike Hürlimann, managing director of the firm said: “We are delighted to have received this prestigious award as it recognises our continued investment in reducing the impact on the environment. Sustainability is an ongoing theme for us for many years now and we continuously set ourselves challenging goals to ensure our work in this area continues to produce positive results”.
source: http://www.geberit.co.uk