1st September 2014
Top Tubes’ environmental credentials couldn’t be higher, and earlier this year that became official with our gaining ISO 14001 registration, meaning that all of our emissions, our waste control and our packaging fully conform to the most stringent international standards.
As Top Tubes Quality Manager, Steve Powell, says: “Most customers require you to demonstrate that you have strategic management structures in place, of which ISO 14000 is a vital part”.
Accordingly, packaging waste, for instance, has now been reduced to the barest minimum. Steel banding has replaced nylon rope and waste segregation programmes mean that negligible waste now goes into landfills, being diverted instead to energy from waste programmes. We can even provide a customer with dedicated packaging that’s completely recyclable and reusable.
And we go further still: providing tube to key first tier suppliers requires evaluation of material composition in order that customers, in particular automotive customers, can determine the optimum disposal route at the end of a product’s life.
Structure
For Top Tubes, a major benefit of ISO 14001 is that it provides us with a structure to make further ongoing improvements, from waste reduction, to improve the composition of oils and fluids.
As Steve Powell says: “Gaining registration is not the end of it. ISO 14001 is part and parcel of continuous improvement; longer-term possibilities might include low energy lighting and solar generation, for example. Our environmental commitment is ongoing”.
