Road-making equipment specialist, Hamm AG, has been certified as an ISO 2020 14001 company after it built a comprehensive environmental management system to enable it to reduce emissions further and save resources.
The company, which is part of the German Wirtgen Group, an arm of John Deere, said in a statement that the certification, awarded at the end of November last year, came about as a result of a process of building an environmental management system that it had been working on since 2018.
Hamm added that two positions, among others, were created as part of this – an environmental management representative and an energy representative. Giving details about the road roller manufacturer’s environmental policy, Dr Stefan Klumpp, director, said: “Protecting the environment is vital for us. This applies both to our operations as a manufacturing company, and to our products. It goes without saying that we therefore comply with the statutory regulations. We have also identified further potential for improvement through our environmental management system in order to reduce our use of resources and energy consumption, and to limit our impact on the environment.”
According to Hamm, this has been a part of its philosophy for many years. As a result, the administration building has been heated and cooled via a geothermal energy system, using renewable energy from the soil, since 2013. This allows Hamm to reduce CO2 production by 60t every year. CO2 emissions have also been drastically reduced in many areas in production.
The company’s statement added that one example of these efforts is the trainee project, which systematically identifies and eliminates losses in the compressed air system. Another project was the development of a special low-solvent, one-layer paint for the drums in cooperation with the paint suppliers. This helped reduce emissions from solvents and similar substances (VOC=Volatile Organic Compounds) by around 10%.
With its ISO 14001 certification, Hamm is highlighting the seriousness of this commitment. Also, increasing numbers of customers prefer to collaborate with manufacturers that can provide an environmental management system, as this increases their competitiveness. Hamm AG is meeting exactly this requirement by committing themselves to continually improving their environmental performance, said the company’s statement.
