ISO 14001
At the KCI, activities directed towards the preservation and development of the environment are supported by our corporate culture and by the sensitivities of our workforce to environmental issues, and accepted amongst our priorities.
To ensure its continuation, our environmental approach was transformed into a management system, and in 1999 given the official stamp of approval when, subsequent to TSE inspections, the TSE-EN-ISO 14001Environmental Management System Certificate was awarded.
The KCI was one of the first institutions to merit ISO 14001 certification. Any such institution must first devise an Environmental Policy which agrees with the overall Environmental Management System, and in the process of implementation, ensure that its employees and other groups concerned are fully aware of environmental understanding and choices. Environmental approaches and priorities are given careful scrutiny, and the preservation and development of environmental quality is ensured by application of measures and systems necessitated by the laws and regulations concerned.
The goals of an institution operating under an Environmental Management System and its attendant rules and regulations may be expressed as follows: to minimise waste sources, via recycling or other suitable means; to reduce consumption of natural resources to the lowest possible levels through economical use of energy and materials; to guarantee worker health and safety with zero tolerance of accidents or hazards; to deploy the most environment-friendly technology in our activities, and to ensure that, in the environmental culture and attendant approaches and choices shared first with our own employees and secondly with the groups we participate with, training and environment-consciousness is an essential feature. Sustainable Development must be a principle of our environment policy, to preserve the dynamic structure of the current system.
As demanded by our Environmental Culture and the regulations of the overarching Environmental Management System, our efforts continue: the control and prevention of all possible negative environmental effects arising from our activities, such as the pollution of water, air, soil or working environment; the development of a safeguard system to ensure that current environmental stipulations keep pace with industrial development.
Finally, our “Emergency Situation Plans” ensure the complete awareness of our workforce, via training and drills, of correct procedure not only in the event of natural disasters such as flood, earthquake or storm-damage, but before and after man-made disasters too. In this way, life and property threatening procedures can be avoided; fire and environmentally-damaging events can be minimalized, and the industrial process as a whole brought closer to a state of zero environmental impact.