The goals of Elcoteq’s environmental responsibility activities are compliance with legal regulations and customers’ requirements, as well as continuous improvement of its environmental performance.
The European Union’s (EU) integrated product policy has shifted the emphasis from management of site-specific environmental impacts to minimizing the environmental impacts of each product throughout its lifecycle. Elcoteq’s expanded service offering, along with new legislative obligations and customer requirements, calls for continuous development of environmental management by the company.
Directives and Legislation
The most significant statutory and customer requirements for the products Elcoteq manufactures are based on EU directives. These apply, for example, to the handling and recycling of waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (RoHS), and the need to observe the lifecycle impacts of energy-using products in the design of these products (EuP). These directives have set new requirements especially with respect to the collection and management of product-specific environmental information throughout the supply chain, and they also affect
Elcoteq’s manufacturing process, from product development to after-sales services.
Design for Environment (DfE)
Design for environment (DfE) aims at minimizing environmental impact during the product lifecycle. Key issues in environmentally benign product development include improving the recycling properties of products and minimizing the use of hazardous substances, energy consumption and quantities of materials needed. Elcoteq has developed its own information management system to enable the collection, analysis and reporting of this product-specific environmental information.
Key elements in managing environmental impacts throughout the product lifecycle are identifying and managing the requirements in the whole value chain for individual products and in different market areas. The EU’s new environmental directives require the whole lifecycle of a product to be taken into account right from product development.
Product-specific environmental legislation is also being drawn up outside Europe, for example in the USA, China, Japan and South Korea. Elcoteq is monitoring developments in environmental legislation in all major market areas and is able to offer its customers expertise in environmentally sound product design globally.
Environmental Management System
Elcoteq units operate within a multisite certificate for quality and environmental management system. The company’s environmental management system was updated in 2005 to correspond with the requirements of the new ISO 14001:2004 standard. At the same time the structure of the environmental management system was revised with changes including the setting of function-specific targets worldwide.
All business units are individually responsible for continuous improvement of the environmental management of their local operations according to the Group’s environmental policy, targets and instructions. This allows the units to address local conditions when defining development priorities.
Improving Eco-Efficiency
The environmental impacts of Elcoteq’s manufacturing processes are relatively small compared to those over the entire product lifecycle. Key environmental aspects in manufacturing are energy and chemical usage and waste. Elcoteq is working to improve the environmental performance of its plants with long-term development work, by raising energy and material efficiency, and by reducing the use of hazardous substances.