As a global player in the health care sector, our responsibility extends beyond our business operations. We are committed to improving the environmental performance of our products throughout their entire lifecycle and to reducing the impact of our operations on the environment.
In North America, environmental management is organized at a regional level. We constantly monitor national and international regulations relating to environmental, chemical, and occupational health and safety issues so that our internal policies, guidelines and standard operating procedures are up-to-date. In compliance with applicable laws and internal guidelines, our manufacturing sites, distribution centers and laboratories are subject to regular audits. Furthermore, we regularly analyze energy, water and waste, and review them to reduce consumption and improve efficiency in all our facilities.
In Europe, Middle East and Africa, environmental management is part of Fresenius Medical Care’s integrated management system. The aim here is to systematically control and reduce risks associated with environmental protection, comply with applicable legislation, and meet the expectations of our customers and patients. Since our environmental certification strategy is focused on but not limited to production sites with high consumption levels, eight of our largest production sites in Europe, Middle East and Africa are certified according to ISO 14001. Two of these production sites are also certified according to ISO 50001. Compliance with ISO standards is regularly reviewed by internal and external experts.
In Latin America, we have implemented an environmental management program to control and improve our environmental performance in terms of energy, water and waste in our dialysis clinics. In addition, we review the environmental data on a regular basis to control developments as well as target achievements and define measurements and activities for improvement.
In Asia-Pacific, environmental management is managed locally by each manufacturing site. This includes the management of water, waste water, energy, waste, greenhouse gas emissions/air pollution, and noise, based on local regulations which may differ from site to site. The general target is to achieve environmental compliance and make improvements to reduce any negative environmental impact and risks for our patients and employees as well as for our production facilities.