With a tradition of a sound environmental policy for more than 30 years, we are guided by the basic principle that prevention is better than cure.
At Philips Healthcare, we work to improve the environmental performance of our products, activities and services and minimize their environmental impacts.
EcoVision
We adhere to the Philips EcoVision Program, first established in 1998. It sets 4 year action targets for environmental improvement for both products and processes. We are currently in the EcoVision III Program with environmental improvement targets set for the time period 2006 to 2009.
EcoVision III targets focus on energy consumption, waste minimization, substance restrictions, EcoDesign and supplier management improvements. The Philips Sustainability Report annually publishes the status of these parameters plus others, collected internally via the EcoVision Monitoring databases called "locem" for site operations, and "busem" for packaging and EcoDesigned products.
EcoDesign
To improve the environmental impact of our products, Philips Healthcare employs EcoDesign, “environmentally conscious design” – a process that applies the Life Cycle approach. This means that the environmental impact of products is calculated and accounted for across the whole Life Cycle of the product – materials used, production, packaging, transport, usage and end of life. The EcoScan software tool has been selected by Philips for conducting the Life Cycle analysis. A product’s environmental impact is expressed as a single environmental value or EcoIndicator, a value number given in millipoints, that expresses the total environmental load of a product or process. An EcoIndicator is a single score representing the overall environmental impact of a material, product or process.
As early as possible in the design and development stages, the EcoDesign process calls for consideration of environmental improvement throughout the product’s life cycle in one or more of the six Green focal areas.
A Green product results if the following conditions are met:
- The organization’s EcoDesign process was followed;
- Three or more Green focal areas were considered for improvement and
- When compared to a predecessor or competitor’s product, the new product proves to be better by 10% in one or more Green focal areas and the overall lifecycle score, calculated with our EcoScan Tool, must be equal or better.
View the Green Products of Philips Healthcare.
ISO 14001
Philips requires all its manufacturing sites to be certified to ISO 14001, “Environmental Management Systems – Requirements with Guidance for Use”. ISO 14001 is an International Standard, formulated by the International Standardization Organization (ISO), that forms the basis for setting up, auditing and certifying environmental management systems.