Our improved rating in the Business in the Environment (BiE) survey of the UK's top 350 listed companies provides a further measure of our progress in recent years. This survey has established itself as an authoritative measure of the state of environmental management within a major company and has become an accepted benchmarking exercise within the business community. Our score has improved from 56% in 2001 to 76% in 2004.

Eco-design
The Smiths product range is diverse. Some of these products contribute positively to the environment – mechanical seals reduce pollution – while others benefit society at large by improving quality of life or by providing safer medical products. Our detection products provide, for example, greater security for air travellers.

We are working to limit the environmental impacts of our products, especially in managing hazardous materials and in response to customer requirements (e.g. on the Boeing 7E7 Dreamliner, Airbus A380 Super Jumbo and Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter), and new EU legislation on electrical and electronic equipment. Our manufacturing sites are encouraged to practice product stewardship through their ISO 14001 systems, manuals, procedures and design teams. During 2004 we developed in-house eco-design guidelines and case studies for dissemination across the Group. We also participated in the UK Environment Agency's eLCA project to help develop and road test on-line tools for simplified Life Cycle Assessment of products.

Whilst we have come a long way in recent years in how we manage EHS, we are not complacent and recognise that there is still much to do. We value continued stakeholder feedback on our EHS reporting and welcome comments via our on-line feedback form on our EHS website (see www.smiths-group.com).