12 September 2006
There is action behind the words, when Grundfos talks of sustainable development. This is substantiated by the pump group in its first Sustainability Report.
Group President Jens Jørgen Madsen explains that the aim of the report is to provide a broad insight into Group activities regarding social and ethical responsibility and its efforts to improve the environment in general:
“We wish to give our customers a broader basis on which to assess Grundfos as a company. We do this by being open about the way in which we run our business – not just in our role as a pump manufacturer, but also as a business partner, employer and responsible citizen”, says Madsen.
The Sustainability Report 2005 is a supplement to the Grundfos Group’s financial Annual Report and should be seen as a natural development of the annual Environmental Report which Grundfos introduced in 1997.
The report shows that Grundfos is well on the way towards achieving greater sustainability in a number of areas. Employees and managers throughout the Group are focused on saving energy at each stage of the product’s life cycle.
Energy-saving pumps
Lower energy consumption is beneficial to both the environment and the economy, and customers will be pleased to learn that intensive product development is making Grundfos pumps increasingly energy efficient and more environmentally friendly as a result. Despite the fact that energy consumption is already extremely low, it is the Group's objective that it should be reduced by a further five per cent in 80 per cent of all new products developed between now and 2009.
Significant fall in accident frequency
Both the employees and society in general benefit from a reduction in accidents which otherwise cast a shadow over the working day. Between 2000 and 2005 the number of accidents fell from 30 to 17 per 1 million hours worked.
More women
In its work towards achieving an even gender distribution, Grundfos has previously set itself the objective that at least 10 per cent of managers would be women by 2006. This objective was already reached in 2005, and the next objective is that women will represent 20 per cent of managers by 2008.
More apprentices
Although many of the objectives apply to the entire Group, the ways in which sustainability is achieved may vary from company to company. There is, however, one social task with which all of the manufacturing companies are charged: to train apprentices and, over the years, the number of apprentices in the Group has grown steadily.
The induction and training of young people with problems
Grundfos in Denmark demonstrates a particular responsibility towards young people who are not able to start an apprenticeship on ordinary terms. An induction course allows the young people to improve their professional skills before becoming apprentices on ordinary terms.
The sustainable results that Grundfos achieves in a variety of areas are, according to Group President Jens Jørgen Madsen, largely attributable to the fact that employees have responded to the encouragement of their managers to become actively involved and to share in the responsibility by providing suggestions for improvements.
”Employees are vital to the development of a company, and it is encouraging to see that the good working conditions offered by Grundfos are repaid by the commitment and interest shown by the employees. This paves the way for sustainability”, says Jens Jørgen Madsen.
> Read Sustainability Report (iPaper) |
