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Organisation of environmental protection at WALA

Environmental protection is the foundation for the comprehensive philosophy and business activities of WALA Heilmittel GmbH. An important aspect is that all employees should feel a personal responsibility for nature and contribute their own ideas and suggestions for improvement.

This means that environmental protection at WALA is a complex, ongoing process. An environmental management system has been established to provide the necessary structure and ensure optimum implementation of environmental measures. It records and examines environmentally-related processes and data. The Environmental Officer analyses WALA’s direct impact on the environment and the indirect effects of its activities and also checks for compliance with relevant environmental regulations and ordinances. The Environmental Officer monitors all areas of WALA, from offices and manufacturing facilities to sales representatives in the field.

The Environmental Officer uses the ABC method to analyse the extent of direct environmental impact in the entire company. Based on this data, the officer initiates measures to reduce these effects, taking all aspects into equal account, e.g. energy and water consumption, wastewater volumes, etc. Indirect environmental effects are assessed according to their relevance and the extent to which they can be influenced. All substantial direct and indirect environmental effects together with all measures and ideas for reducing these effects, for instance optimising cleaning processes through automation or evaluating packaging according to environmental considerations, are described in Sections 5 to 10.

Because one has to continue to move forward to keep from sliding back, WALA is vigilant in its pursuit of optimisation. It conducts regular internal audits and undergoes external environmental audits to consistently identify potentials for improvement. Appointed employees implement new ideas, while the Environmental Officer and other responsible persons monitor their execution.

WALA issues a report every year to document the activities, results and further development of its environmental management system. Internal environmental committees form another cornerstone of the environmental management system.

• The Operative Environmental Committee consists of employees from various departments and meets every four weeks to discuss environmental issues relevant to WALA.
• The Strategic Environmental Committee meets at least twice a year and specifies the company’s overriding goals in environmental protection. It is made up of the members of the Management Board and the various directors and department heads.
• In case of special topics, such as IT or the garden, employees from the Extended Environmental Committee may be consulted for their expertise in these areas.

Environmental protection is closely related to emergency management, occupational safety and materials handling. As a result, officers responsible for these areas meet once a month on an as-needed basis. During these meetings, those responsible for these areas may discuss issues such as waste management, hazardous materials or fire protection.

The Environmental Officer is the contact person for all issues related to environmental protection. This staff member provides information, identifies potentials for improvement, serves as a liaison and co-ordinates environmental protection measures. In order to better include employees in environmental protection within the company, WALA established a “Green Suggestion Box” for environmental ideas in 2000. It allows employees to contribute their comments and suggestions. All adopted environmental ideas take part in an annual prize drawing.