In line with the Schweighofer Group’s environmental policy standards, the Holzindustrie Schweighofer Reci sawmill received earlier this month its ISO 14001 certificate.
“This certification is proof of the commitment the company has towards environment protection and is a step towards more efficiency and a better environmental performance,” says project manager Zsigmond Vucic. “With this certificate we upgraded the position of the environmental responsibility in our mill and it is planned that the other production units of the Schweighofer Group will soon follow suit, as it is part of the Group’s environmental policy to have all mills operating in Romania ISO 14001-certified by 2022.”
ISO 14000 is a family of standards related to environmental management that exists to help organizations minimize how their operations negatively affect the environment (i.e. cause adverse changes to air, water, or land) and at the same time comply with applicable laws, regulations, and other environmentally oriented requirements. The Reci sawmill of the Schweighofer Group is the second production unit in Romania to receive the ISO 14001 certification, after the Comănești blockboard factory achieved the standard in 2009.
The certification process in the case of the Reci mill started last year, with environmental responsible Zsuzsanna Rancz and mill manager Adrian Radu also being part of the team that oversaw the entire process.
“We were environment-friendly before the certification as well, but we now know that some aspects could be tweaked,” says mill manager Adrian Radu. “We are now formally ISO 14001-certified, and need to put everything on paper to be able to prove how efficient we are.”
With an eye on a target of 30% reduction in electrical and thermal energy by 2025 and 25% less CO2 emissions by the same year, the Holzindustrie Schweighofer Reci mill also aims at minimising the volume of waste generated by its operations and to increase waste recovery.
“It has been an interesting process along the way,” says Zsigmond Vucic, “because at the beginning we all thought it would be a bureaucratic burden. However, as we get more experienced, we see this certification as a useful tool, as there were several processes in the factory that could be improved by complying with the requirements. People slowly start to understand the entire process and act in this respect, more proactively, and in the next year the entire process will prove how effective we are.”
Adds environment responsible Zsuzsanna Rancz: “Questions start to pop up as one starts to think a little bit more about the entire process. At the beginning, the biggest challenge was separating waste, and we installed special trash bins in each department, as people weren’t separating their waste accordingly. Then, just like any other factory, this sawmill is using a big lot of energy, both electrical and thermal, just that we generate it ourselves. We are now starting to implement check lists for department heads to make the entire process more efficient.”
The certification process: step by step
It all started with a context analysis, according to Zsigmond Vucic. “We put our company in a context, from the external and internal factors’ point of view which included also the identification of the most important stakeholders,” he says.
After describing all the processes in the factory and identifying risks and opportunities for the environmental part in each of them, the environmental program was set (the outcome of teamwork between the technical bureau from Austria, the Reci mill manager and other involved departments).
“We set the environmental programme objectives, for each area. For each objective we determined the goals and actions which we could take,” adds Zsigmond. “We made a handbook, procedures on waste management or on how to train the people, we established some procedures which are needed, and now, in the last phase, we checked how we comply with the law, because there is always room for improvement.”
Concluded mill manager Adrian Radu: “Technology-wise, we have the most advanced sawmill in the country, and maybe not only in the country. This new certification is a badge of honour for our environment responsible who put in a lot of effort, and we are very proud. As a matter of fact, the environment responsible is a very important function in all the Group’s mills, and this will become more obvious in time. With this new approach to environment management, we are a bit closer to perfection in timber – which is our motto and mission.”
