Article
The Erfurt noventic subsidiary QUNDIS successfully passed this year's review of its environmental management system. The company can therefore continue to bear the "EMAS seal" of the European Union. Since 2015, QUNDIS has been regularly certified with the seal for tested environmental management (EMAS) of the European Union.
It took several months of hard work for us to satisfy the requirements for EMAS validation: Every production process had to be put under the microscope and optimised for resource efficiency. The direct and indirect environmental impact of production, materials consumption and energy requirements, as well as QUNDIS’ environmental targets, were rendered transparent through an environmental statement. Since then, strict compliance with the EMAS requirements has been monitored and successfully certified through regular environmental audits by an independent, government-licensed environmental expert.
EMAS enables us to apply our sustainability philosophy consistently within a single framework and embody it in our daily practice. This management system makes a major contribution to our customers’ growing trust in our products.
EMAS certification is not only a guideline for responsible management but also a driver of innovation, which aims not just to reduce environmental impacts but also to cut costs. QUNDIS focuses among other things on the use of pollutant-free products and manufacturing processes. The product developers pursue the ultra-low power design principle aimed at ensuring long-term operation without having to prematurely replace components or batteries.
Following cradle-to-cradle principles, the return of old appliances is controlled by a waste products management system whereby QUNDIS ensures their correct dismantling and recovery, followed by their environmentally appropriate disposal by specialist companies. The disposal companies are regularly audited in their turn.
QUNDIS has introduced this returns system throughout Europe, in so doing working closely with the responsible authorities and institutions. The information needed for trouble-free, environmentally appropriate disposal can be consulted online. This ensures that the entire life cycles of QUNDIS products are rendered transparent for our customers. During 2018/2019 the volume of old appliances processed by QUNDIS came to 65 tonnes.
“The returns system has been very well accepted and demonstrates the growing environmental awareness of our customers”, says QUNDIS Environmental Management Officer Frank Jünemann. In future the eventual recovery of the accumulated raw materials will be taken more closely into account during the development of new QUNDIS appliances. To this end techniques will be tested which permit the use of regenerative plastics during the production process: one further step towards the maximally efficient use of valuable resources.