Smiths and the environment

Managing environmental impacts

Organisational arrangements to manage environment issues are combined with those for health and safety. At Smiths we believe that performance-based environmental management systems are the way to drive improvements throughout the business. All facilities, except small offices, have been set the task of certification to the environmental management system ISO14001 while all new acquisitions must achieve certification within two years. On 31 July 2007, 74 of our 75 eligible sites were certified to ISO14001.

Smiths is very proud of its commitment to ISO14001 and we believe that this verified commitment to top management involvement and continual improvement will continue to deliver environmental benefits to all stakeholders. Indeed, Smiths was requested to address the ISO14001 tenth birthday celebrations held in London in November 2006 and present our experience of certification and the benefit realised by the company.

Total energy use (MWh/£m sales)

Total waste to landfill (Tonnes/£m sales)

CO₂ Emissions ('000 Tonnes)

Note that the 2004 baseline data includes Smiths Aerospace whereas 2007 does not.
Whilst normalisation against sales makes the figures directly comparable the changed
mix of manufacturing processes can exaggerate to some extent an already positive level
of achievement.

Performance against targets

In July 2004, we identified four key reduction targets (normalised based on turnover) with a three-year horizon:

• energy consumption, 5%;
• waste to landfill, 6%;
• air emissions in the form of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), 6%; and
• water consumption, 12%.

We committed to achieve these goals by 31 July 2007 and we are very pleased to report that we met or exceeded all four of our targets.

Whilst not targeted, we continue to monitor CO₂ emissions which reflect our successful drive on energy efficiency. Smiths facilities are not included in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme.

 

VOC emissions (Kg/£m sales)

Water consumption (m³/£m sales)

CO₂ Emissions (Tonnes/£m sales)

 

 

 

 

Looking forward

Looking forward, we decided that a three year programme remains sensible to allow time for the development of solutions and allocation of resources. We have established goals to be achieved by July 2010 which require further improvement to our environment performance as follows:

Subject	Target	Normalisation
Greenhouse gas emissions	No increase over 2007 baseline	None. Absolute cap
Waste generation	9% reduction in total non-recycled waste over 2007 baseline	Per £1M sales turnover
Water consumption	9% reduction over 2007 baseline	Per £1M sales turnover

 

We will continue targeting waste and water consumption normalised based on sales. Rather than targeting energy use as in the past, we will target our greenhouse gas emissions (mostly energy related) and, for the first time in Smiths, remove normalisation and focus on absolute values with an aim to maintain a flat emission level during a period of ambitious growth.

Smiths has participated in the UK's Business in the Community's Environmental Index for some years. In 2006 we scored just over 90% achieving a 'Gold' rating. We scored well on management systems and related issues but acknowledge that we have more to do on product stewardship and supply chain relationships to improve our performance further. The full BiTC feedback is available to review by clicking here.