Agfa Graphics has won
the Institution of Mechanical ngineers Manufacturing Excellence (MX) Award for
Sustainable Manufacturing, sponsored by Arup.
On their website, Arup
justifies the sponsoring of the MX award stating that “businesses with the
ability to produce first-class products, using sustainable processes, need to
be seen as role models. They deserve our admiration and for their achievements
to be celebrated to the wider industry.”
Dominiek Arnout, VP
Operations, Agfa Graphics, says: "We highly appreciate this award as a
recognition of our focus on sustainability. The manufacturing industry values
our continued efforts on sustainability by awarding one of our production
plants, and appreciates our concern for the environment, the people and the
community Agfa Graphics is part of.”
Besides the ISO90001
quality standard, Agfa Graphics has streamlined its efforts to achieve
sustainability in the form of energy management, workers concern and Safety
Health & Environment (SH&E) compliance across the globe over its
various manufacturing plants. Throughout all its production facilities Agfa
Graphics adheres to local restraints and regulations and commits to all norms
regarding environmental management (ISO14001), occupational safety and health
management (OHSAS18001). By implementing SERP, a global Sustainability and Energy
Reduction Program, the company intends to prepare for upcoming changes and
expectations based on worldwide standards.
"As a sustainable
supplier Agfa Graphics will be capable of delivering the right products for the
market place in general, and in particular for the graphic industry where
sustainable print production becomes increasingly important,” Arnout continues.
“Proof of this are initiatives taken by many of the leading printing and
publishing companies to reduce the carbon footprint of their operations and the
announcements that sustainable production of media will be an important
future-relevant subject at the upcoming drupa 2012. One of the products
Leeds is involved in, is our award winning Azura TS printing plate. This uses a
water-based coating process, compared to conventionally processed plates, reducing
waste generation by about 80%."
The Agfa Graphics' strategy
of sustainability through ongoing innovation dovetails into this general
concern of the printing industry. It encouraged a global
approach under one management to streamline all efforts across Agfa Graphics'
manufacturing plants and to develop synergies that can be found between the
various facilities.
"All of our
manufacturing plants worldwide will benefit from the work that led to this MX
Award for Sustainable Manufacturing through exchanging of best practices that
have been benchmarked by the award winning Agfa Graphics Ltd production plant
in Leeds (UK),” said Graham Cooper, worldwide sustainability manager at Agfa
Graphics.