Environment, quality & sustainability

1. The continued development of our company in order to improve quality, environmental protection, employee orientation, customer benefit and customer loyalty helps to improve our competitiveness and therefore the company’s economic situation.
2. Innovations and continuous improvements can generate continuous commercial success. Commercial success creates the financial basis for investment and innovation.
3. The encouragement of top performance throughout the company (TQM) is the guarantee for our competitiveness. This applies to all business units, all employees, all workflows and processes and to the selection of suppliers and service providers.
4. Total Quality Management (TQM) provides an opportunity for improving performance and reducing costs, for reducing costs of non-conformities by preventing non-conformities, for reducing impacts on the environment.
5. We believe that the further development of quality and environmental protection offers a means of improving the efficiency of the company. The pursuit of continuous improvement (CIP) is a goal for all employees and therefore provides a guarantee for the future success of the company.
6. The further development of our incident management system is intended to prevent accidents and reduce accident-related contamination of the environment as far as possible.
7. Every employee has the right and responsibility to draw attention to circumstances which may pose a threat to quality, safety or the protection of the environment, and to take appropriate care to prevent or eliminate such circumstances.
8. Effective environmental protection by the company and improvements in quality and safety is only achievable with the active involvement of all the workforce. We therefore assist our employees with instruction briefings, information and training.
9. Burdens on the environment which emanate from the company are monitored, documented and evaluated. We keep our employees and the public informed about our environmental activities and are committed to the implementation of suggestions and wishes concerned with improvements where economically justifiable.
10. Compliance with statutory and administrative regulations is a requirement and responsibility of all our employees.
11. Burdens on the environment and safety risks related with new products and processes are assessed in advance. These have to be kept to the minimum possible. In addition to the commercial objectives for product development and production, the following objectives also apply: Environmental compatibility, protection of resources, reliability, maintenance-friendliness, durability, functionality and safety.
12. We offer our customers advice on the environmentally-friendly use of our products. Where necessary and relevant, environmental and safety aspects are incorporated in work instructions.
13. Contact with authorities, associations, organizations and allied companies enables us to prevent or reduce burdens on the environment and make the most of new developments in the fields of the environment, quality and safety, among others.
14. We expect our suppliers and service providers to comply with our, or similar, specifications and requirements in respect of the environment, safety and quality requirements at the plant.

The building of the NIEHOFF headquarter on the outskirts of Schwabach, which went into use in 2010, was built to low-energy standard. The new building is integrated in a sustainable and aesthetic ensemble featuring a green roof, grassland habitats for flora and fauna, and an orchard.

With 13,770 meters of drilling, 162 geothermal heat probes and an average depth of 85 meters per borehole, one of the biggest geothermal energy plants in Germany has been installed on site, (Source: Bundesverband Wärmepumpe e.V.) which provides approximately 75% of heating requirements and 100% of cooling requirements.

Heating and cooling management is provided by two heat pumps. The heat generated from the cooling process is used for heating in the cold season, whereas the cold generated by heating is used for the cooling of servers and machines. The exhaust heat from production is used to support the heating system and the hot water supply. The decision not to use air conditioning and cooling towers was quite deliberate. The exhaust heat from ventilation systems and painting lines is extracted by heat exchangers and used to pre-heat the inlet air supply, so that as little heat energy as possible is lost.

An important precondition for the high level of energy efficiency in the new building is the excellent heat insulation in the building shell, which features a concrete sandwich structure. Thermal transmittance (u-value) of the concrete sandwich facade is less than 0.23 W/m²K. The solid inner concrete shell serves as a heat accumulator in winter and stores cool air in summer. Ceiling radiant panels in the production area and ceiling heating and air-conditioning systems in the office areas maintain a pleasant temperature everywhere at all times.