The prerequisite for this official entry in the EMAS register was an amendment to the EMAS regulations that was jointly initiated by Schaeffler, as well as an extension of the environmental verifier licence in cooperation with a qualified person in China.
In keeping with the company's philosophy that all of its production locations worldwide should fulfill the same high environmental standards, Schaeffler already began carrying out EMAS-based inspections of all its locations outside the European Union in 1999. In specific terms, this means that Schaeffler set up an environmental management system at these locations that fulfills all the EMAS specifications and had this system verified by an independent environmental verifier. This includes proof that applicable laws have been adhered to and the creation of an environmental statement as stipulated by the EMAS regulations. This environmental statement was validated by the environmental verifier, i.e. was inspected and declared valid. The concluding step in the registration process, however, was not possible for these countries until recently.
With Yinchuan, a current total of 43 Schaeffler locations and legal entities from 12 countries are officially registered according to EMAS. The registration of further Schaeffler locations outside the EU is also planned.
Schaeffler has already received the German and European EMAS award for large companies in recognition of its active environmental management. For more information on EMAS, visit www.emas.de
The environmental policy, the certificate of registration, the certificates according to ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 with an overview of the registered and certified locations, and the environmental statements of these locations are published on the Schaeffler website: www.schaeffler.de