Manufacture 

First things first, the environmental performance of a manufacturing industry starts by what is happening in its plants. 

Our sites are operated in compliance with the applicable laws and regulations of the countries where they are located. These laws and regulations are usually structured around an ex-ante mandatory permitting process for some operations and an ex-post declaration regime for other operations. 

Beyond the regulatory regime applicable, the plants of our Group are committed to implementing an environmental management system. 

Our European sites are committed to having this environmental management system certified by the ISO 14001 standard. The progress of this commitment can be tracked in the Annual Management Report, on line on this web site, under the heading “Impact on the Environment of our Activities”. 

Finally, within the framework of our legal obligations to communicate to our shareholders and other stakeholders, our Group communicates on several consolidated indicators which allow for an outside reviewer to evaluate and compare our environmental performance over several years. 

The consolidated performance indicators which are tracked are:

• Releases to air and water of several substances
• Amount of waste generated, detailing hazardous and non-hazardous waste as well as their ultimate fate
• Energy and water usage of our sites
• The monetary amount of environmental investments for the purpose of reducing the environmental impact of our sites

The results of these indicators are available in the Annual Management Report, on line on this web site, under the heading “Impact on the Environment of our Activities”.