Environmental responsibility

At Vaisala, we consider the environment to be our key stakeholder. It is
our duty to provide means for accurate measurements of both the natural
and built environments. We consider environmental safeguarding in all its
forms to be of great importance. That is why we do our best to gradually
enhance our environmental performance on all levels.

 

Designing a better future

We want to be involved in establishing a sound foundation for a better quality of living, environmental measurement, safety and productivity. Accordingly, the main purpose of many of our products is to contribute to improving the quality of our environment. Our industrial products and solutions provide our customers with a means to improve their environmental performance, and our weather measurement systems increase safety in weather critical operations.

Given that our customers want to improve their environmental performance, it is also our responsibility to manufacture products as sustainably as possible. Vaisala has a certified SFS-EN ISO 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS) in all its manufacturing facilities. This globally acknowledged EMS standard is our foremost instrument in guaranteeing consistent and efficient environmental performance. Vaisala is working on becoming fully REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemical substances) and RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances and RoHS China) compliant and has started implementing RoHS before it was mandatory for its products. All new Vaisala products have been EU RoHS compliant since 2005. We are currently in the process of making all our products and components EU RoHS compliant and estimate that this work will be completed in 2010. For the time being, Vaisala’s RoHS product category, Monitoring and Control Instruments, is exempt from RoHS requirements.

In 2008 Vaisala joined the energy efficiency improvement program of the Federation of Finnish Technology Industries and committed to cut down 9% of its energy use by 2016 from the 2008 levels. Vaisala is also a member of the Finnish Air Pollution Prevention Society.

 

Vaisala environmental policy

As a manufacturer of products for environmental measurement, we strive to continuously improve our products, services, and business processes with regard to their environmental impacts, the prevention of pollution and the reduction of waste. Vaisala’s products and business processes comply with the applicable environmental legislation and regulations, as well as other environmental guidelines to which Vaisala has subscribed. In the area of new product development, we strive to minimize environmental impacts by managing the entire product life-cycle from design to disposal. ‘Designing for the environment’ is one of our basic product development principles. Specific environmental targets are defined in the strategies of the divisions and business units. We measure, review and improve our environmental performance with the help of specific key indicators of environmental performance.

 

The most important milestones in our environmental responsibility program

 

WWF Green Office

Since early 2009, Vaisala is a participatory in the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Finland’s Green Office program. This initiative’s goal is to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions generated by office environments. Together with WWF, Vaisala will strive to further mitigate negative impacts to the environment by improving efficiencies in its offices. This can be achieved by training and communicating environmental targets to staff, setting up new greener guidelines, emphasizing the importance of recycling, energy conservation and making green choices everyday.