In our Safety, Health, Environment and Quality (SHEQ) Policy, we set out our commitment to mitigating ecological harm to the best of our ability. Here we focus in particular on conserving resources, maximising plant and product safety and minimising emissions and waste.

We understand the environmental impact of our processes and are therefore able to develop and implement plans to reduce and control such effects. We have SHEQ management systems in place to help us identify environmental risks throughout the world, define responsibilities and implement local and global environmental standards in our business areas. SHEQ officers are appointed at regional and local level to coordinate these environmental activities.

We routinely examine our environmental protection performance in the course of our worldwide audits. Our Group risk management process also systematically assesses environmental risks on a global level. In addition, many of our locations are certified to international standards like the ISO 14001 environmental management standard.

Prior to constructing a new plant, we always draw up a detailed environmental protection plan. This includes an emissions list, a framework for obtaining official environmental clearance and specifications for noise protection measures. The emissions list must include plans for drainage, wastewater treatment and air pollution control. These are incorporated in the plant operating manuals.

Between 2008 and 2010, we completed more than 500 internal environmental projects across the globe, which included schemes to reduce CO₂ emissions and save water. In 2010, our main priorities in the field of environmental protection included further development of our global environmental strategy and calculation of the carbon footprint or balance of our products.

Raising environmental awareness among employees

The cooperation and commitment of our employees is vital to achieve our environmental protection aims. Information campaigns and recognition for outstanding environmental management raise awareness and encourage initiative. We have awarded Linde employees in several regions for their useful climate protection ideas for the workplace. We also included environmental protection questions in our Group-wide employee survey in 2010.

Complaints related to the environment

We always follow up suggestions for improvement that we receive. During the reporting year, we received 19 environment-related complaints (2009: 18). Most of these concerned noise or odour issues. In addition, we were aware of 31 environmental incidents that had to be reported to the authorities (2009: 24). In the main, these involved minor discharges of oil or diesel, and there were also a few cases of air emissions that fell under reporting requirements. These resulted in small environmental fines and warning fees to the total amount of around EUR 38,900.

Eco-friendly solutions

For many of our customers environmental protection – and climate protection in particular – are playing an increasingly important role. That is where we come in, working in collaboration with our customers to create eco-friendly solutions. We focus on using resources more efficiently, reducing emissions, eliminating the use of harmful substances and developing solutions for clean water.

> More on our environmental and energy technologies as well as environmental audits and international certification

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