In its annual year-end newsletter, NAUE Geosynthetics has announced a significant achievement: ISO 14001 Environmental Management Certification for its production sites in Germany. The international company manufactures Bentofix® geosynthetic clay liners, Carbofol® geomembranes, Secugrid® geogrids, Combigrid® composite reinforcement materials, and other well-known geosynthetic brands.
The global, independent technical services and quality verification group TÜV Nord oversaw the NAUE’s ISO 14001 certification (following DIN EN ISO 14001:2015).
ISO 14001 & ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY
Geosynthetics have earned a strong reputation for improving infrastructure performance while reducing the carbon footprint of construction activities. For example, geosynthetic barriers enhance environmental protection measures (e.g., landfills, mining, remediation works); and reinforced walls, slopes, and roads can be constructed with less land disturbance and require less harvesting and transportation of aggregates.
With ISO 14001 certification, NAUE also contributes responsibly to the environment in its manufacturing processes. The Environmental Management System program ensures that the environmental impact of manufacturing activity is reduced to a minimum.
Germany, where NAUE’s international headquarters are based, has been a leading country in environmental management system certification in manufacturing. NAUE’s facilities there join roughly 8000 companies in the country with ISO 14001 certification.
It is not a certification that many geosynthetic manufacturers have undergone the stringent audit to achieve.
“As a company whose products are used throughout the world,” NAUE’s leadership writes in the preamble to its year-end newsletter, “NAUE has practised a responsible approach to the environment for nearly 50 years now. In order to be well prepared to confront future environmental challenges, we had set ourselves the target of introducing NAUE into a system of environmental management in accordance with the ISO 14001 standard.”
While news of the accomplishment is being promoted more openly now, TÜV Nord actually confirmed the mark in June 2017.
The ISO 14001 standard is international recognized. The standard was first published in 1996 and last amended in 2015.
“With this, we extend our existing quality and energy processes to include the topic of environment and strongly emphasize our values as a green company in the truest sense of the word,” the company write
Download a copy of NAUE News 47 (December 2017 – PDF)
Learn more about NAUE’s geosynthetics at www.naue.com.
