The RAMPF Group has taken a further step toward a sustainable future, receiving certification to the internationally recognized ISO 14001 standard. The certification of the environmental management system underlines the German-based SME’s environmental awareness and sustainable business practices.

The ISO 14001 standard of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is the world’s leading specification for environmental management systems. It aims to create a balance between operational cost-efficiency and environmental protection, and to continually improve this.

The fact that RAMPF lives by a defined environmental policy and incorporates environmental factors into corporate decisions was confirmed by the internationally recognized DEKRA certification and test seal at the company’s Grafenberg site this summer. The companies tested and audited were RAMPF Holding, RAMPF Polymer Solutions, a developer and producer of reactive resin systems based on polyurethane, epoxy, and silicone, and RAMPF Tooling Solutions, an international market leader for board and liquid materials for cutting-edge modeling and mold engineering.

“With the introduction of the environmental management system to ISO 14001, we’re underlining that environmental protection and sustainability – which are firmly anchored in our RAMPF values – are a living, breathing part of our company philosophy. And we’re also making this clear to the outside world,” says Ralph Lutz, Quality, Health and Safety Manager at the RAMPF Group. Together with Rainer Faust, officer for the environmental management system, he is responsible for implementing and monitoring the targets that have been set.

By carrying out regular internal audits and inspections, Lutz and Faust ensure compliance with the strict requirements to ISO 14001. Comprehensive documentation tailored to the RAMPF companies forms the basis for this. This includes organizing regular training courses for employees to consolidate sustainable approaches and environmentally friendly practices in the Group.

The measures also include an energy action program, with recording and evaluation of all energy flows relevant to the companies, such as electricity and gas consumption, and development of optimization measures.

As the continuous improvement process is a key part of the energy management system, it is an area of particular focus. Processes are coordinated and developed further thanks to precise documentation and evaluation of all data. Specific improvement measures are created based on set strategic objectives – examples include reducing resource consumption, emissions, and waste.

Other projects are currently underway with the aim of recycling the production waste occurring in manufacturing and machining processes. As Lutz notes: “We’re thus already following the German recycling management legislation applicable from 2017 onwards and making a further contribution to waste reduction and sustainability in terms of our production processes.” Working with renewable raw materials such as lignin is also part of RAMPF’s environmental policy.

“By taking this systematic approach, we are subjecting our environmental processes to daily scrutiny, harnessing potential for improvement, and thus playing our part in environmental protection. The standard serves as a guideline and roadmap for us in this process,” says Faust. He’s proud that RAMPF has received early certification to the standard, which was revised in November 2015 and will not become binding on all certified companies till fall 2018. “A certified environmental management system is no mean feat for an SME of our size. So we’re all the more delighted to be at the cutting edge.”

“We would like to thank our managers and naturally our employees, too, for successfully launching the environmental management system. Without everyone’s dedicated contribution, certification would not have been possible. We continue to count on their comprehensive support so that the planned optimizations to the environmental management system can also be implemented effectively,” says Matthias Rampf, CEO of RAMPF Holding.

In addition to ISO 14001, this summer DEKRA also issued certification for energy management to ISO 50001. Since auditing of all the companies at the Grafenberg site and RAMPF Machine Systems in Wangen and Bessenbach in 2014, RAMPF Production Systems in Zimmern o. R., RAMPF Eco Solutions in Pirmasens, and RAMPF-Immobilienverwaltung in Grafenberg have now followed suit.