Our Approach to the Environment

Several of our customers have already realised this and they are investing internally in more efficiency and replacing fossil fuels with renewable fuels such as solar or wind power. Additionally they are aiming to promote environmentally friendly products by delisting those products most harmful to the environment or introducing eco labelling to indicate environmental load of the products.

Ontex has not waited for this new realisation. Over the past 5 years the company has very significantly contributed to becoming more environmentally friendly by the introduction of new much lighter products that use fewer raw materials, the introduction a biodegradable product range, significant reduction in electricity consumption and reduced wastage.

Nevertheless, Ontex wants to do even more for the environment, and develop strong green credentials, which is why Edwin Birnbaum has joined us to champion these efforts at Ontex. He has started by measuring the environmental impact of Ontex products across several dimensions such as:

1. The creation of green house gases (CO2, methane,..) emissions from electricity consumption or travel
2. The waste we generate from production, packaging and post consumer waste
3. The utilisation of non-replaceable natural resources such as wood and water

To ensure we measure the full impact of our products we will include in the measurements our suppliers and customers going from raw material production to post consumer waste.

These initiatives will not only make Ontex a more responsible company but, we hope, also result in large cost savings from reducing packaging, waste and energy consumption.

We need to start identifying opportunities for improvement.

Becoming an environment friendly company requires efforts from everyone at Ontex! There are several things that you can all already start doing to help. Some may seem small, but when over 4000 Ontex employees do the same then the impact is great such as ensuring the lights are always off when you leave a room empty, closing doors to conserve heat, turn off PC’s, printers, copiers in the evening, identify and repair leaking pressurised air. Try using public transport or at least ensure you share a car for getting to and from work, fix dripping taps and many more similar things. Most of all give us your ideas.

Ensuring we can eventually become fully environmental neutral will be difficult and require a cultural change but in the long run it will be very rewarding for all of us,

Thanks for your support

Michael Teacher
CEO