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Spennymoor attains ISO 14001 certification

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As part of its commitment to sustainable development, Thorn has another production plant certified in accordance with the environmental management standard ISO 14001. The environmental audit at the lighting brand’s largest luminaire production facility - at its home base in Spennymoor, northeast England - was successfully completed during the summer of 2009. In the course of certification, all processes at the plant were brought into line with the parent company's environmental goals. At the same time, a management process was put in place to ensure the continuous improvement of environmental performance.

Receiving the certificate Mike Harrison, Health and Safety Engineer, said that ISO 14001 certification "demonstrates to all that we are committed to ensuring our environmental management meets the highest standards”.  Acknowledging a responsibility for the environment he added "having an Environmental Management System means we can identify aspects of our business that impact on the environment and understand which environmental laws are relevant to our business. This then allows us to produce objectives for improvement and a management programme to achieve them, with regular reviews for continual improvement.

"We are determined to build on this initial certification over the coming months and years and to do more to reduce our impact on the environment.”

Landskrona, Sweden was the first Thorn site to achieve ISO 14001 certification, back in December 1997.

Background Information on ISO 14001

The international environmental management standard ISO 14001 specifies globally recognised requirements for an Environmental Management System (EMS). The main focus is on a process of continuous improvement as a means of attaining the predefined environmental goals of an organisation. ISO 14001 aims to reduce the environmental footprint of a business and to decrease the pollution and waste a business produces.

In structure it is similar to the quality management standard ISO 9001. At Spennymoor both standards have been implemented side by side.

ISO 14001 certification must be verified through an independent audit body. For Spennymoor, this is Quality Austria Training, Certification and Evaluation Ltd.