Green Future
Rules in harmony with nature
Company’s ecological behaviour monitored by the ECMS system
hen we first reported about the Together4Integrity (T4I) program, which is a VW Group initiative, we pointed out that this program would be implemented by all Group companies, including ŠKODA AUTO, in their internal regulations. T4I covers areas such as compliance, integrity, risk management, culture and human resources, legal affairs, corporate strategy, and environmental protection. It is unlikely that anybody could have imagined how, for example, the principles of compliance would affect environmental protection. But it is quite simple.
From a compliance point of view, environmental protection is mainly raising the following questions: How do we prevent violations of the rules in this area? How do we detect them? And how do we respond to them appropriately?
Environmental management methods
The environmental management system (EMS), which is already running and monitors environmental impact, compliance with specifically set requirements and objectives in the field of environmental protection, meets the goals of the Group’s efforts in the area of compliance. Compliance is gradually becoming an integral part of our company’s strategy and culture across all areas, including environmental protection. As a result, this aspect was added to the original EMS, which was subsequently renamed the environmental management compliance system (ECMS). It is based on already existing EMS activities and systems. The program has been extended by further topics, procedures and mechanisms that put greater emphasis on speak-up communication, prevention and detection of breaches, grouping and managing environmentally relevant risks, systematic education and informing about the state of fulfilment of binding requirements in the field of environmental protection.
Any and all requirements, tasks and responsibilities for implementing the ECMS are described in Group Directive KRL.0.17, which is based on the requirements of the ISO 14001 standard and the standard for compliance management systems.
All Group brands’ parent companies are implementing the ECMS program in all phases of their business activities and in the lifecycle of their products and services. As one of the major brands representing the Group, ŠKODA has taken over the requirements for environmental compliance and incorporated them into its internal standards and it already applies. The ECMS will be included in the forthcoming, newly updated IMS manual to become part of the integrated management system and will replace the former EMS. All information will be integrated into environmental training, which is intended for all ŠKODA AUTO employees. RED
Principles of compliance and the environment
Training effectiveness
(number of trained employees)
Four-eye principle for data entry –prevention of accidental or intentional confusion of data
Verifying the effectiveness of corrective actions by audits
Reporting reasonable suspicion of serious misconduct (fraud detection)
Search for environmental risks and their grouping in order to determine preventive measures
Find more at ŠKODA Space
Software-enabled savings
Reducing energy consumption in tool production
he employees and management from the PKA – Axle Production department are monitoring energy efficiency management and thereby reducing energy consumption per production unit every year. To have a systematic tool for this purpose, they have started using an automatic evaluation software to assess the operating costs in energy management visualised in Power BI. “This software support was prepared for us by colleagues from the PSU – Ecology and Occupational Protection and PKT – Technical Service departments, in cooperation with the supplier. The system is continuously comparing energy consumption from the past with the monitored comparable period, depending on production and outdoor temperatures. Based on these analyses, we then look at differences in detail to eliminate energy wasting processes”, says Tomáš Dušek, who heads the department. One of the specific “corrective” measures involved replacing 122 skylights. In addition to improving the lighting at production premises, this also reduced heat leakage by about 60 percent, which ultimately reduced the heating costs in our plan by 1,484 MWh per year.
This year, Axle Production will focus on saving compressed air. Backed by the PSU department, it has already carried out a separate compressed air consumption measurement in Hall M1 – Axle Assembly. Thanks to local measurements, they were able to detect up to 124 leakage sites. They calculated that the annual decrease amounted to CZK 150,000 and immediately started to eliminate loss sources. “We would like to continue this way in the upcoming period, when we will focus on the electricity consumption, heat or water”, adds Dušek. RED