More steps in the right direction for NIBE’s environmental work
Environmental work is one of the cornerstones of our long-term commitment to sustainable development. Offering products that reduce dependency on fossil fuels and lower greenhouse gas emissions is a key part of our business concept. We are also committed to working systematically to minimise the environmental impact of the Group’s purchases of raw materials and components, and of our own production processes and goods transport.
Our environmental work
The Group has production facilities in 16 countries and is thus affected by many environmental, safety and health factors. Our production methods include metalworking, welding, casting, enamelling, painting and assembly, all of which impact on the environment in their own way. Key environmental aspects for NIBE to consider are, above all:
- Energy use and the use of other natural resources
- Use of chemicals
- Emissions of climate-change gases and of other atmospheric pollutants
- Generation of various types of waste
- Environmental impact of suppliers’ activities
- Transportation of raw materials and finished products
- Environmental impact of our subcontractors
- Use of our products (which, by and large, can be described as a positive impact on the environment).
We continually assess risks in various environmental areas. These assessments concern issues such as the consequences of new environmental legislation, new customer requirements, climate change, soil pollution and the presence of hazardous materials in buildings and installations. No additional requirements regarding environmental legislation were identified for 2011.
Oil leaked into the surrounding land from a production plant in Denmark, but the area has now been remediated after the spill. Soil pollution had been detected earlier at four other plants and investigations are ongoing. In all known cases, the pollution was caused by previous business owners and we are thus not responsible for the original spills.
Asbestos is present in roofing materials and in a few equipment installations at a handful of production plants but, as the risk of exposure is deemed low, no clean-up work is planned in the near future. A low concentration of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) is present in a transformer at one plant. No special action needs to be taken, however, apart from marking the equipment with warning signs.
One of the production plants may be at risk of flooding as a result of climate change and is therefore protected by a special concrete wall.
Environmental legislation
Environmental legislation affects NIBE in many different ways, both in terms of conditions for production operations and the environmental characteristics of our products.
We regularly analyse developments in such legislation to comply with current requirements and to prepare for future changes in legislation. The EU’s chemicals legislation REACH and the Ecodesign Directive, which aims to improve energy efficiency in Europe, are of particular interest.
Our plants in Sweden require a permit or a notification to operate under the Swedish Environmental Code, and reports are regularly submitted to the supervisory authorities. Most units in other countries have an environmental licence that covers all or part of their activities. All plants that are obliged to do so hold a valid permit, and we expect no major changes in the near future. The results of internal and external checks in 2011 to assess compliance with environmental legislation were generally favourable. At one plant in Poland, however, there were breaches of licence conditions that included noise and emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the atmosphere.
Environmental certification
Key to our environmental ambitions is obtaining ISO 14001 certification for our production plants. Work on this is in progress at several sites, and we aim to have most of our operations certified. A further six units were certified in 2011, bringing our total of ISO 14001-certified plants to nine. A handful more companies are currently looking at certification within the next 6 to 18 months. We have access to a number of internal environmental auditors, who between them performed more than 30 environmental audits during the year.