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 hereor visit our blog.
Building on the success of 2014's first event at Google-Cambridge, the 2nd Annual New England Healthy Materials Summit is returning to Boston's ABX Conference on Tuesday, November 17th, 2015. The first Summit brought together 130+ businesses, institutions, designers, contractors, spec writers and manufacturers to discuss how they together could leverage their roles as makers of the built environment to elevate the “ecosystem” of “healthy” materials locally. This can be achieved through creating demand for “healthier” products by Owners, specifying competitive, “healthier” products as designers and by supplying demand as a manufacturer. The first Summit emphasized this through panel discussions by six industry experts: two non-profit experts (Health Product Declaration Collaborative and BuildingGreen), two manufacturers promoting supply chain optimization through disclosure (Forbo Flooring Systems and ASSA ABLOY) and two large institutions implementing practices promoting “healthy” materials (Harvard University and Dana Farber Cancer Institute).
After the first Summit's success, the steering committee decided to take the Summit to a larger, more diverse audience at ABX 2015 with a totally new agenda with new ideas, tool and practices emerging since 2014.This promises to be another exciting, unique event and one which is relevant for the area to all involved with the making of the built environment – particularly members in ABC's Challenge for Sustainability!
You can register for the ABX2015 Conference here, and find more details about the Healthy Materials Summit workshops here!
ASSA ABLOY Group, one of our Chapter sponsors, recently announced their increased commitment to environmental protection.
In August 2015, ASSA ABLOY Group door brands released several Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), to be more transparent about the environmental impact of their products. EPDs, whch provide a comprehensive list of components and potential environmental impacts throughout the product's life cycle, satisfy requirements of industry-wide programs.
Sustainability is a key component of product innovation at ASSA ABLOY. Stacey Callahan, VP of Marketing & Innovation at ASSA ABLOY Door Group, spoke about her company's commitment to sustainable practices. “Our ASSA ABLOY Group door brands fully support the trend toward transparency and are working on EPDs for ten additional products by the end of 2015.”
Callahan detailed how new product development at ASSA ABLOY aims to meet the strict codes, standards, and green building codes laid out by the USGBC. “Understanding a product's impact on the environment helps us to make better decisions about materials and manufacturing. This ensures the best outcomes for our customers and their building projects.”
Releasing EPDs is just one example of the Group's continued effort to responsibly, sustainably provide commercial solutoins including: energy efficient openings, products produced with rapidly renewable materials and recycled content, and programs for proper recycling or reuse of products at the end of their life-cycle.
ASSA ABLOY Group's increased transparency about their environmental impact raises the bar for other manufacturers of building materials. Thank you to ASSA ABLOY for your sponsorship and continued commitment to USGBC MA's mission of sustainability!
About ASSA ABLOY Group
ASSA ABLOY is the global leader in door opening solutions, dedicated to satisfying end-user needs for security, safety and convenience. Read more about their products and environmental efforts at www.assaabloydss.com.
Over 130 members of our green building community came together on Friday 11/14 to learn and share knowledge about healthy materials in buildings.
We gathered at Google's Kendall Square (Cambridge) office – in their new “bridge space” on the fifth floor. They have an extensive audio-visual set up and we enjoyed filling up the entire theater.
The Sustainable Design Leaders of New England organized the entire program and Blake Jackson of Tsoi/Kobus Associates (a Chapter Sponsor) served as the MC.
We heard brief presentations from a panel of six experts on various aspects of healthy materials choices in the design and operation of buildings – from the owners' side, manufacturers and advocates. Below is Nadav Malin from BuidlingGreen and to the left are:
Bill Walsh from the Healthy Buildings Network
Heather Henriksen of the Harvard Office for Sustainability
We had a great turnout of many of the leaders of the green building industry in Massachusetts and beyond. The “unconference” aspect was especially engaging. This program was made possible by the contributions of many, especially the sponsors:
Premium Sponsors:
A Better City
Armstrong
ASSA ABLOY
Bergmeyer
Forbo Flooring
Google
Knauf Insulation
Nelson
USGBC MA
Sponsors:
Boston Society of Architects
Gensler
Goody Clancy
Hydrotect
Sasaki
Sustainable Minds
The entire group broke out into three rooms and pairs of the speakers toured around, 30 minutes with each group, participating in a crowd-derived conversation. A lot of specific exploring occurred. How can manufacturers declare their EPDs w/o losing market share due to “first-declaring penalty?” How can builders start to look at the longevity of their products? What is the trade off between longevity and toxicity? Maybe some products could actually be designed for shorter utilization periods and not have to be so durable, in the way durability efforts generally drive more and more complex and potentially dangerous chemistry…?
Hat's off to the Sustainable Design Leaders of New England, Healthy Materials Summit Organizing Team!
Congratulations to Arjun Mande of Goody Clancy, Mihir Parikh of A Better City, Anastasia Huggins of Gensler, [me] and Blake Jackson of Tsoi/Kobus!
I'm sure we're already looking ahead to next year's Summit!
