Our new factory in Suzhou was opened on May 8th, 2007. From the beginning, one aim of this factory was to respect environmental values, that is, our new factory was to be "a green one”. We accomplished this by putting international environmental guidelines and Chinese environmental legislation into practice.
"To green" the factory in Suzhou, we followed the ISO 14015 standard “Environmental assessment of sites and organizations”. Following the standard, we identified what organizational activities interact with the environment (environmental aspects), are
there any changes to the environment resulting from the activities (environmental impacts), does any environmental aspect deviate from the selected criteria that may
result in benefits or liabilities (environmental issues), and what are the business consequences.
Two global guidelines led our work. The environmental aspects were derived from
the United Nation’s Global Compact guidelines. According to the Global Compact’s environmental principles, businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges, undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility, and encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally
friendly technologies. The United Nation’s principles are implemented through the
Global Reporting Initiative’s Environmental Indicators. These environmental aspects include materials, energy, water, biodiversity, emissions, waste, products and services, and environmental compliance. Thus, our environmental activities are comparable
within our whole supply chain.
In Suzhou, we used the Global Reporting Initiative’s Environmental Indicators to categorize all Chinese environmental laws. We evaluated our Suzhou activities against the factory’s environmental application requirements, the Chinese legislation and the environmental aspects, making proper changes when needed. For example, we measured the exhaust fumes and consequently greenhouse gases. We measured the noise level and analysed the waste water contents. We built a new chemical room, a washing room, a solder dross room, and a waste room. During this process, we involved as many Suzhou employees as possible.
How we worked with environmental aspects caused the following recognition at Efore’s Environmental ISO Audit in Espoo,
January 31st, 2007: ”The environmental aspects have been well recognised in a very systematic way and the development needs
have been well noticed, taking into account global needs. At this area Efore is among Finnish companies at the very forefront.”
Efore’s Environmental Program “The Green Factory” is part of Efore’s Technology Development’s activities.
10.5.2007
Johanna Jaskari
Technology Development
