Clever product, manufacturing and site design were rewarded recently when ResMed LTD achieved ISO 14001 certification, the internationally recognized standard for an environmental management system.
It’s a great result for ResMed because 72 percent of the company’s products are manufactured from the Norwest site and the majority is exported overseas.
As the global leader in the design and manufacture of medical devices for people with sleep apnea and breathing disorders, ResMed has stringent quality standards. Creating innovative medical devices also means considering environmental impacts.
The company’s recently released S9™ sleep therapy system already complies with the RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) Directive which medical device industry is exempted until 2012. The S9 has fewer components than its predecessors and is equipped with power management software that optimizes energy consumption during patient therapy. It’s built with plastics that can stand the test of time yet reduce land fill.
Environmentally friendly, cost effective packaging solutions have been introduced, including a reusable S9 carry bag to eliminate bubble wrap and a shipping carton without staples to make recycling easier. The carton’s shape was redesigned to fit 50 percent more product per pallet and up to 75 percent more product in a shipping container significantly reducing transportation energy and cost per unit.
ResMed’s Norwest facility, which has operated since 2004, was created using environmental principles. An onsite rainwater catchment system allows the company to collect and recycle its rain and storm water. The water is used to irrigate the site’s external grounds and provides a self-sustaining way of maintaining the landscape for employees, as well as local fauna and flora. It also means substantial savings in water consumption costs.
Onsite energy monitoring software enables company employees to identify energy-hungry activities and implement improvements to minimize peak and base load energy consumption.
To support its ISO14001 certification program, the ResMed management team initiated the Breathing Life into Our World campaign to promote and support employee efforts to care for their work environment. Employees are encouraged to generate new ideas to further advance the company’s four environmental targets - saving electricity, saving paper, saving water and reducing waste.
Over the past 12 months, employees prevented the clearing of 8,798 trees through cardboard recycling alone, with more initiatives underway.