Smiths Group plc Corporate responsibility report 2006

Corporate responsibility report 2006 > Respect for the environment



HTC seals reduce emissions In April 2006 following an extensive research and development effort, John Crane introduced new Type 604HTC and Type 609HTC high temperature corrosion resistant welded metal bellows mechanical seals. When used as a dual seal arrangement, the new HTC seals provide zero or near-zero emissions to the atmosphere.



Helping suppliers with eco-design Suppliers attending our eco-design workshop in Cheltenham, UK assess the components they produce for Smiths to find ways of reducing their impacts on the environment.



Over 90% scored Smiths has for some years participated in Business in the Community's Environment Index. In 2005 we were =48th overall, scoring just over 90%, an improvement on the previous year. We scored well on management systems and related issues but accept that we have more to do on product stewardship and supply chain relationships to improve our performance.



Testing for air emissions Reducing emissions to air is one of our four key targets. Here a contractor at the Smiths Medical steriliser plant in Keene, New Hampshire USA takes samples of air from the roof exhausts to test for ethylene oxide.

Code: Environment
Smiths is committed to ensuring that, as far as is reasonably practicable, any detrimental effects of its activities, products and services upon the environment are minimised.

Managing environmental impacts
We use the same organisational arrangements to manage environment issues as we use for health and safety (see page 7). At Smiths we believe that performance-based environmental management systems are the way to drive improvements throughout the business in terms of our own impacts. All facilities except small offices have been set the task of certification to ISO14001 while all new acquisitions must achieve certification within two years. Of our 104 eligible sites, 83 are certified to ISO14001 and we have programmes in place for those remaining uncertified.

We also see broader opportunities for reducing our impact on the environment, including managing the impact our products have on the environment after they have left our factories, and helping our suppliers improve their own performance.

Environmental management in the supply chain
Smiths recognises that achieving the level of commitment necessary for ISO14001 can be a bewildering process for smaller suppliers. In the UK, we have developed a programme in partnership with Envirowise (a UK government-funded advisor to business) for our suppliers, offering assistance by sharing our experiences of environmental management. The aim of the programme is to provide a catalyst for our suppliers to consider similar programmes.

Twelve companies in the UK signed up to the programme which has several objectives:

to help suppliers use 'eco-design practices' (these include environmental considerations in product design);
to provide support to ensure that products manufactured by suppliers have minimal impact on the environment;
to assist suppliers to comply with current environmental legislation;
to assist suppliers in developing an environmental policy; and
to provide tailored support so that suppliers can embrace environmental best practice.

Suppliers who have been involved in this programme have already started to reduce both environmental impacts and operating costs. One supplier has reduced waste to landfill by 30%, site energy by 14% and has replaced some of its materials with less hazardous alternatives.

Our programme is now being extended to other parts of the supply chain.

Product stewardship
We acknowledge that our products continue to have an impact on the environment after they have left our factories and during their useful life. We have therefore developed a product stewardship programme to establish standard processes and materials that minimise products' impacts on the environment during manufacture, use and final disposal.

At Smiths Aerospace, we have combined product stewardship with helping suppliers manage their environmental impacts. Four suppliers were selected to join our eco-design improvement programme with Envirowise and ECO3, a UK environmental consultancy. The suppliers attended workshops to learn about the principles of eco-design, bringing with them one component part or unit they supply to Smiths. Through disassembling each component, suppliers learned about opportunities to find better materials and processes, improve end-of-life processing, recycling and packaging design. The other part of the programme includes follow-up visits from Envirowise to suppliers' sites.

Sustainable aviation
The UK aerospace industry has launched a major drive to improve the sustainability of the industry and Smiths is a founder signatory of the 'Sustainable Aviation Strategy'.

The strategy is a co-ordinated industry response to the challenges outlined by the UK Government in the 2003 Air Transport White Paper, and the joint industry and government report of the Aerospace Innovation and Growth Team. These made clear that long-term sustainable development of the aviation industry is essential to the environmental, economic and social well-being of the UK, and set the industry the task of leading the drive for sustainability. The strategy has been developed by UK airlines, airport operators, aircraft manufacturers and the principal air navigation service provider. It sets out eight goals and 34 detailed commitments, and establishes the mechanisms for monitoring and reporting on progress.

Aims for next year
Our four key reduction targets – energy consumption, waste to landfill, air emissions in the form of volatile organic compounds and water consumption – are set to run until July 2007, and we will continue to drive improvement against these. The Environment, Health and Safety Steering Committee is currently considering future goals that will further drive improvement throughout Smiths.

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 are very pleased that we have already met all four of our three-year targets. We also aim to reduce CO2 emissions or their equivalents, although we did not set a specific target for these in July 2004.

This year for the first time we have included environmental data from Medex, a significant acquisition for Smiths Medical in 2005. When their activities are added, the absolute amounts of most measures have increased, but the overall trend for reduction on a turnover basis has continued.

Energy consumption
When normalised by turnover, our total energy consumption continued to decline. This maintains the steady reduction we have achieved since we targeted energy consumption.

Waste
Waste to landfill continues to decline as we choose alternative disposal routes. Some sites are getting close to their target of zero waste to landfill.

Water consumption
Our water efficiency is on target but we will continue to push for further economies in the coming year.

Air emissions in the form of VOCs
Our volatile organic compound emissions largely comprise chlorinated solvents. Again, whilst we have achieved the target that we had set for July 2007, we consider this to be an important area of activity and will push for further reductions.

CO2 emissions
Emissions of CO2 and indirect CO2 equivalents show a steady reduction on a turnover basis.

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