Appliance Deployment Featured Article

NEI (News - Alert), a provider of appliance deployment solutions, high-reliability platforms, and lifecycle support services for software technology developers and OEMs, received today the ISO 14001:2004 environmental management certification at two of its manufacturing facilities, one located in Canton, Mass. and the other in Plano, Texas. The company’s other facility in Galway, Ireland is expected to achieve the same certification sometime next month.

ISO 14001:2004 is known around the world as the standard for environmental management systems, and serves as a guide on increasing efficiency when managing the environmental aspects of any business’s activities, products and services. According to a press release, the ISO 14001 standard outlines crucial requirements that must be followed in order to keep an environmental policy firmly in place, such as: determining environmental aspects and impacts of products, activities and services; planning environmental objectives and measurable targets; implementing and operating programs to meet objectives and targets; and checking and corrective action and management review.

Prior to measuring up to the rigorous requirements of the ISO 14001 standard, NEI had to first create and then integrate a suite of policies that would help to dramatically lower the company’s carbon footprint and potential impact on the environment. Some programs were targeted at lowering the amount of both water and gas used, as well as implementing a more strict system for getting rid of elements including mercury-containing light bulbs, dry cell batteries, recyclables and non-recyclables.

At the current time, NEI is busy working with its suppliers to dramatically reduce the amount of packaging materials needed when shipping products, while simultaneously analyzing options that can be used to recycle and then reuse some of the materials used in NEI packaging, in order to help cut down the amount of garbage that is typically sent to landfills.

“NEI is committed to its customers’ ’green’ initiatives and to continuously improving its environmental policies and procedures,” said John Gauthier, director of quality assurance at NEI. “One of the core tenets of this program is the active involvement of every employee. We work to ensure our staff is invested in this initiative, and they understand that its success depends on their actions. Employees use an internal site to submit new ideas on how NEI can continue to reduce its environmental impact and often utilize those ideas in their own homes. ”