Our principles
The basic for the Siemens environmental protection organization
The obligation to engage in environmental protection, which forms the basis for the company’s worldwide environmental protection rules, is anchored in the fundamental business principles of Siemens. These fundamental principles (referred to below simply as the “principles) form the basis for the environmental guidelines (our environmental policy) and for the “environmental protection and technical safety principles.”
These principles document the structure of the Siemens environmental protection organization, define the responsibilities and duties, describe the internal control system and establish the obligation to operate environmental management systems according to ISO 14001. These requirements are concretized and extended in internationally applicable internal guidelines.
At Siemens, “environmental protection” encompasses both operational and product-related environmental protection, while “technical safety“ comprises radiation protection, transports of hazardous goods, fire protection and industrial disaster prevention. The following discussion is limited to environmentally relevant topics.
All internal guidelines are applicable everywhere in the world where Siemens exercises full entrepreneurial responsibility and in all companies in which Siemens holds more than 50% of the equity.
The environmental protection organization
Global fulfillment of the responsibilities of environmental protection and technical safety requires a global organization:
- At the corporate level, the Managing Board of Siemens AG bears responsibility. Professor Dr. Siegfried Russwurm, the Managing Board member responsible for this area, is supported by the company’s Corporate Environmental Affairs and Technical Safety Offices.
- The executive management of the sectors and regional companies are also responsible for environmental protection. These individuals receive special support from division and regional offices, which are responsible to cope with country specific requirements in countries with plants or offices that have a significant environmental impact, major markets or special regulatory requirements.
- In our plants and branch offices the plant managers or branch office heads and the experts that they have appointed take care of all matters relating to environmental protection and technical safety.
Worldwide environmental protection network
We have issued uniform rules governing the compentences and qualifications of our environmental protection experts and officers. They also participate in continuing education and training programs on a regular basis.
Within our worldwide network of environmental experts, we share our knowledge and experience of environmental management, methods and solutions among locations and divisions and across national borders. For example, the environmental officers of the divisions hold several meetings a year. On the international level, our environmental experts meet once a year in the regions of Europe, North America and Asia/Pacific. At these conferences, the responsible managers and officers receive up-to-date information about new environmental developments relevant to the Siemens. These conferences also serve the purpose of sharing expertise on the international level.
In addition to the regional conferences, other meetings are organized on the basis of specific areas of expertise, among them the “Environmental Product Management Council,” at which the internal guidelines applicable to environmentally compatible product design are addressed as well as other matters.