Newell Rubbermaid's vision is to be a global company of Brands That Matter™ and great people known for best-in-class results. Our success in achieving this vision will be defined not only by our innovative products and consumer satisfaction, but also by our accomplishments as a responsible corporate citizen of the world. This citizenship includes proactive policies and practices that promote worker, environmental and community well-being wherever we do business.
Newell Rubbermaid is committed to the following principles for achieving our corporate vision in an environmentally sustainable manner:
- Leadership and Accountability
Assign clear roles and responsibilities and allocate adequate resources to our sustainability program. Articulate our shared values, and wherever possible, establish clear metrics and use them to track our improvements and hold management accountable for results.
- Integration
Integrate sustainability across the entire corporation, including business processes, products and day-to-day decision-making.
- Ethics and Compliance
Integrate sustainability principles as we conduct business in accordance with our code of business conduct & ethics. Meet or exceed all environmental requirements and standards applicable to our operations.
- Environment
Reduce the environmental impact of our operations and products throughout their life cycle, including design, procurement, production, distribution, product use and end-of-life. Use safer and fewer regulated chemicals when feasible and optimize use of natural resources.
- Stakeholder Engagement
Engage consumers, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders to identify sustainability opportunities and concerns regarding our operations and products. Collaborate with these stakeholders to develop mutually-beneficial initiatives and solutions.
- Communication and Training
Empower employees to practice these principles on a daily basis through adequate education and training, and by creating a workplace with a supportive culture in which our environmental sustainability efforts are regularly discussed, and opportunities for improvement are sought out, shared and implemented when possible.
Implementation of this policy is a shared responsibility among all Newell Rubbermaid employees.
Governance & Management
Newell Rubbermaid is committed to the principles we outlined in our
environmental sustainability policy. Compliance with environmental regulations applicable to our operations and supply chain and our products and packaging are continuing priorities. At our owned and operated manufacturing and distribution facilities worldwide we strive for 100 percent environmental compliance and are committed to conducting independent, third-party audits.
We are going beyond compliance at our global manufacturing facilities by implementing environmental management systems (EMSs) patterned after ISO 14001 to more effectively manage the environmental aspects and impacts of our manufacturing processes and improve environmental performance. Our goal is to have all of our owned and operated manufacturing facilities certified to our internal EMS standard by 2014.
We also are integrating environmental sustainability criteria (e.g., energy conservation, waste reduction) into facility process improvement and productivity programs such as lean/six sigma and operational excellence (OPEX), We have defined key performance indicators (KPIs) for energy and waste and are gathering baseline data for all of our manufacturing and distribution facilities to serve as a basis for future goal setting and reporting.
We are raising environmental awareness of employees across the company and building an environmental sustainability culture through effective networking, programs and training. On Earth Day 2008, we launched our Green Office program whereby employees at our global offices volunteer to drive sustainability practices such as increased recycling, carpooling and environmentally-preferred purchasing. We are currently evaluating corporate-wide metrics for the Green Office program which will be used to gauge and improve our performance. In addition, individual global business units and brands have developed or plan to soon launch various initiatives to raise the environmental awareness of their employees revolving around their specific products.