Sustainable Development
It can be difficult to visualise what the commonly quoted Brundtland
definition of sustainable development - "meeting the needs
of the present without compromising the ability of future generations
to meet their own needs" - means in practice. Smiths’ strategy
has been to focus on EHS issues in our day-to-day activities
and on the impact of our products, aiming to:
- Reduce our environmental impacts, using ISO 14001 to help
manage risks in our operations.
- Reduce workplace accident rates, using safety management
systems and internal auditing.
- Improve the eco-efficiency of our operations, targeting reductions
in our use of energy and other natural resources and better
disposal of waste.
- Integrate environmental thinking into the development of
new, sustainable products to meet customer expectations and
regulatory requirements.
Managing Eco-Efficiency
Our focus on creating a lean enterprise and implementing new
management systems helps us minimise waste and maximise the efficient
use of our resources. We have set reduction targets for greenhouse
gas emissions, water use and waste to landfill to support our
continuing drive towards efficient operations. A Group-wide EHS
Committee regularly reviews the progress we are making with our
EHS initiatives.
Sustainable Products
We have significant business interests in defence, healthcare,
detection and emissions-reduction technologies. Innovation is
the key to Smiths providing more sustainable products. A number
of our new products help reduce our customers’ environmental
impacts, improve safety and deliver healthcare benefits:
- Our safety syringes reduce needlestick injuries.
- Our insulin pumps improve quality of life for diabetes sufferers.
- Our on-board avionics systems deliver improved energy efficiency
and fuel saving for aircraft.
- Our mechanical seals and sealing systems help customers reduce
environmental impacts and comply with increasingly stringent
regulations.
- We repair avionic instruments to maintain safety and extend
product life.
- We are working on phasing out hazardous substances in products
to reduce environmental impact at end-of-life disposal and
to comply with changing regulation.
Our ISO 14001 systems, procedures and design teams have raised
awareness at all levels of the Group of the need for environmental
thinking to be integrated into our product design and we are
developing simple Life Cycle Assessment tools to provide better
quality data. |
