AGC Glass Europe

AGC Glass Europe has assigned responsibilities to all relevant levels and positions within the Group.

At the highest level, the Executive Committee has ultimate responsibility for establishing and reviewing the environmental policy for the Group. It allocates the necessary resources to support implementation of the policy, comprehensively observes progress in environmental performance and reviews the appropriateness and effectiveness of the EMS at group and division level.

The Environmental Management Representative reports to the Executive Committee and advises it on environmental results in the divisions, sets up conformity audits in the plants and establishes processes to improve environmental performance.

Division and Corporate Services heads implement the EMS of their divisions and establish environmental objectives and targets in accordance with the Group’s environmental policy.

At plant level, the plant manager is responsible for matters relating to local and national environmental legislation/policy and for implementing an appropriate local environmental management system. In many plants he or she enjoys the support of a plant environmental specialist.

The Group Environmental Department works under the responsibility of the Environmental Management Representative and supports management activities at all levels in a pro-active way, among other things by participating in relevant European networks that play an active role in the development of legislation, technology and policies, and coordinating the exchange of information at all levels within the Group.

Information is collected from the plants so as to provide the Group with annual environmental reports.

This work is carried out in close collaboration with the R&D activities and other group functions such as Safety, Risk Management, Purchasing, Technical Coordination and Technical Engineering.

AGC tree in Boussois plant, France. Today the metallic trees are found in most of our factories as a sign of our environmental commitment.

AGC Glass Europe aims to maintain a professional dialogue with its stakeholders about the environmental performance of its processes and products in an open, objective way, actively sharing this information with them.

In response to our customers’ requests about environmental data, we support the development of a globally accepted and harmonised system of Environmental Product Declarations. For this purpose we fully support and cooperate in the EPD^® system, a system for science-based, verified and comparable environmental data. See also “Products.”

We also hold discussions with suppliers and customers concerning the REACh¹ regulations. The aim is to be sure that AGC uses pre-registered, registered and authorised substances to protect health and the environment. AGC Glass is a producer of manufactured articles and is mainly a downstream user of chemicals, and as such ensures communication within the supply chain.

We have also set up a system of dynamic interaction at group level, called the Green Bell, involving environment experts, the R&D Centre, Technical Engineering, management and holders of relevant positions within the Group. The Green Bell aims to analyse potential environmental aspects at the birth of a project in order to avoid negative impacts.

Within the Environment Management System we exchange best practices and information about environmental incidents in plants. The objective is to improve the management of environmental risks in comparable situations and plants. We also share information through our environmental databases, which are accessible to all interested parties within the Group.

We also developed the Innowiz programme, where each AGC employee can post their “green” ideas. This is an excellent way to exchange information and best practices all over the Group, at all levels and on all subjects.

At plant level, open communication with employees and the authorities alike, concerning the environmental impact of the manufacturing process, is a serious responsibility of management and an essential part of day-to-day-business. A special logo is used to promote internal communication about the environment in the plants.

Since AGC Glass Europe aims to inform its stakeholders about the environmental performance of its processes and products in an open, objective way, we actively share this information with them. The Environmental Report you are reading now is another example of this.

¹Regulation EC1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals, entered into force the 1st June 2007.

AGC tree in Salerno, Italy. Today the metallic trees are found in most of our factories as a sign of our environmental commitment.

We have established procedures at group level in order to monitor compliance with legislation and with our environmental policy. These procedures include e.g. reporting to group level concerning incidents and non-compliance at plants, environmental KPI reporting and assessment of the environmental impact of new investments, right from the planning stage.

Great emphasis is also given to implementation of Green Purchasing, to ensure that the products provided by our suppliers are managed in a way that respects the environment. As a first step, we decided to focus on supplies of raw materials in order to be sure that no unwanted dangerous substances end up in our finished products. The next steps are to extend Green Purchasing to all substances, preparations or articles that we purchase and to promote the ISO 14001 environment management system with our suppliers.