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PAPER VIEW: Chairs made of recycled paper provided the
seating at this festival.
Photo: DUNAPACK |
Many companies in Central and Eastern Europe
must overcome legacies of the Socialist era, including obsolete
manufacturing technologies and equipment, and an outdated approach
to management. Budapest-based Dunapack Ltd., a manu-facturer of
paper packaging products, serves as a good example of a long-established
company that has adapted and thrived in the deeply changed economic,
social and regulatory environment. It was not long ago that the company’s pollution far exceeded regulatory limits, and its
resource efficiency lagged well behind industry standards. In the early 1990s an Austrian investment
group acquired a controlling share in the company, but kept the operational management in place
— a decision that has since been vindicated. Over time this management reorganised the company
and developed it into a market leader in Hungary, with subsidiaries in Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine,
Poland, and Croatia. Even more, the company is now sharing managerial know-how with peers in the
west.
These remarkable results are a credit to Dunapack’s adoption
of the integrated management system (IMS), a scheme that addresses
issues of quality, environmental performance and occupational
safety and health and is certified according to the international
standards ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001. The company is also registered
with the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) and has adopted
the OHS 18001 standard. The systems were introduced gradually
beginning in the mid-1990s. The motivation was — especially
in the case of the environmental management system (EMS) —
a recognition that a manufacturer of paper products must make
environmental performance a top priority.
Dunapack was among the very first to introduce environmental and quality management systems
in Hungary. Today, the different components of the IMS reinforce each other, creating a synergistic
effect and producing several economic and environmental benefits on a continuous basis. Dunapack’s
improvements in the area of environmental protection can be grouped into three main areas: product
development, resource usage, and pollution abatement. For instance, since one of the main aspects
of product development is to attain full reusability, containers made solely of paper are favoured
over difficult-to-process ones made of multiple materials. In some cases paper-only packages have
replaced ones that previously contained no paper at all.
Other types of innovation streams have included the reduction of certain products’ specific
weights as well as increasing the amount of recycled materials with which the company makes its
packages. Already, 98 percent of the firm’s raw material is recycled. These innovations
have improved Dunapack’s competitiveness and have garnered several international awards.
The operating EMS has also reduced the company’s product-specific
heat demand by approximately 15 percent and has cut overall fresh
water demand in half. Emissions into the air of most pollutants
are far below regulatory limits and the chemical oxygen demand
(COD) of discharged water has been halved.
The economic benefits attributable to the IMS, including its environmentally driven measures,
can be assessed in savings of money and less tangible benefits. Financial benefits come from the
savings of energy, water, and raw materials, while intangible benefits comprise better organisational
operation, improved organisational culture, and better understanding of technological problems
and solutions.
This success story was compiled by the REC Business and Environment Programme
in support of the Dutch EU Presidency begun in July. |
