Management systems serve to design organisational structures and work processes in such a way that systematic action can be taken and planned results achieved.

This is certainly the case at the international special glass manufacturer Schott, which is currently looking back on the 25th anniversary of its EHS management system. EHS deals with the topics of environmental protection and occupational health and safety.

In October 1995, the Schott Group bundled its activities in these areas, some of which had been ongoing for many years, into an integrated management system. A binding guideline, standards and an organisational framework were created.

"Our EHS system has proven to be an important building block for sustainable development in the areas of environmental protection, energy management and occupational health and safety" said Hermann Ditz, Member of the Board of Management, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary.

The integrated EHS management system is based on the international ISO standards 14001 (environmental management systems) and 45001 (occupational health and safety).

Group-wide EHS standards supplement national laws and regulations where standardised processes make sense and where it is important to Schott to uniformly regulate relevant topics of the code of conduct and to define a minimum standard.

For this reason, an EHS Standard for Material Compliance has recently been added.

Today, almost 90% of the group’s production units are certified internally according to the Schott EHS guideline. As part of the current transition to external EHS certification, more than 60% of the units already have an external ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 certificate.

"As part of the EHS system, we report eight indicators at all production sites” explains EHS Commissioner Dr Tobias Kälber. “These form the basis for a targeted and measurable improvement in EHS performance. At the same time, we can identify potential for improvement and good practices in these areas and initiate optimisation."

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