By Ritchie Lafaille, Office Fellow
Reducing the waste generated across the Group’s operations is a priority for ASSA ABLOY. Recently fifteen factories within the EMEA region were certified as Zero Waste to Landfill, independently verified by the Carbon Trust.
“Avoiding landfill is an important first step for businesses wanting to deal more effectively with waste;” says Darran Messem, Managing Director for Carbon Trust.
“Achieving this for all waste arising is not easy, especially for a manufacturing business. ASSA ABLOY deserves to be congratulated for successfully achieving zero-waste-to-landfill in fifteen sites across Europe.”
The verification process involved physical audits at the Portobello site in the UK and the Abloy site in Joensuu, Finland, with 13 remote audits for the remaining sites across Europe.
ASSA ABLOY has been reporting sustainability data on a quarterly basis since 2013 according to GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) guidelines, which allowed the Carbon Trust to audit the company’s data seamlessly. The Carbon Trust was chosen to certify ASSA ABLOY sites, as an internationally recognized NGO, giving credibility and integrity to the zero waste claims.
There are many ways to reduce waste and also benefits to be gained by avoiding landfill, says Matt Daly, business improvement and sustainability manager at ASSA ABLOY UK. “When we split our waste into different categories, we can analyze why it is generated in the first place. This enables us to identify ways to minimize our waste wherever possible.”
Understanding waste better helps eliminate the cost of generating waste in the first place, while also identifying potential revenue streams when waste doesn't go to landfill.
“All waste is a potential raw material for somebody,” says Charles Robinson, sustainability manager EMEA.“In EMEA we are seeing increasing examples of organizations willing to pay for our waste. Traditionally this was metal only, but now we see examples of generating revenue from cardboard, paper, wood, electronics and even some hazardous waste. In the future landfill waste won’t be an option and working towards a circular economy will be the norm.”
The 15 certified sites are located in UK, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland.
Read more about ASSA ABLOY's sustainability work here or visit our blog.
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