HiTek Power's Environmental Policy is:
HiTek Power recognises that the richness and quality of the environment depends on responsible stewardship.
As a company we are committed to:
- Maintain compliance with environmental regulatory requirements.
- Minimise any harmful effects that our activities or products may have on the environment.
- Use resources efficiently and promote the application of the waste hierarchy.
- Achieve continual improvement of our environmental performance.
- Continue to prevent pollution of the environment.
To ensure these commitments are met we have put in place an environmental management system that guarantees a planned and structured approach is taken to environmental issues.
Environmental management system overview
HiTek Power operates an integrated environmental and quality management system that meets the requirements of
ISO 14001:2004 &
ISO 9001:2000 and is designed to support the company’s environmental and quality policies.
The following management system description, although not exhaustive, gives an overview of some of the key equipment and processes used by HiTek Power Ltd.
First and foremost it is our people that make our environmental management system work effectively. The flexibility, skill and dedication of our workforce is the foundation on which all else is built; a full description of our human development process is given on the following link
Working for Us.
HiTek Power’s processes have been identified, described (by easily understood flowcharts), refined and, by using various mechanisms/improvement tools, continual improvement is achieved. Regular internal and third party auditing is carried out to ensure the management system is operating within required and planned parameters and the whole management system is subject to comprehensive, annual, top management review.
HiTek Power has identified the environmental aspects of its activities and using a weighting formula, highlighted those that are considered significant. Controls and improvement targets have been put in place for all the identified environmental aspects; environmental aspect weighting is reviewed on a regular basis so improvements made by the company can be incorporated into the calculations.
Although the controls listed below are only a sample of the controls in place and are generally for aspects not scoring heavily in the HiTek Power environmental aspects weighting system, they do give an indication of the depth of the HiTek Power environmental management system.
| ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECT |
AREA COVERED |
CONTROL PUT IN PLACE |
| Use of resources & emissions to atmosphere |
Vehicles |
Weekly checks as well as scheduled servicing |
| Use of resources |
Canteen; Kitchen & washrooms |
Weekly maintenance checks |
| Possible discharge to water |
Interceptors |
Annual maintenance checks |
| Possible discharge to atmosphere & use of resources |
Chiller |
Weekly maintenance checks |
| Possible discharge to atmosphere & use of resources |
Air conditioning units |
6 monthly maintenance checks |
| Discharge to atmosphere & use of resources |
Boilers |
Annual maintenance checks |
| Possible discharge to atmosphere & water also use of resources |
Compressor & vacuum pumps |
Annual maintenance checks |
| Noise |
Intruder & fire alarms |
6 and 3 monthly maintenance checks |
| Possible discharge to atmosphere & use of resources |
PCB cleaning plant |
Annual maintenance checks |
After thorough review, HiTek Power has generated a register of environmental legislation that could or does apply to its site, operations, processes or products. This legislation register cross references to the company’s environmental aspects register, so facilitating the regular evaluation process that is looking at HiTek Power’s compliance with applicable environmental legal requirements. New environmental legislation and current legislation amendments are highlighted using ‘CEDREC ENVIRONMENTAL’, which explains in plain English legislation requirements. Update bulletins from CEDREC are received regularly, with new versions loaded onto the HiTek Power network from quarterly CDs.
As waste generation of various types scores highly within the HiTek Power environmental aspects weighting system, application of the waste hierarchy is a fundamental block in HiTek Power’s environmental improvement programme.
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Elimination
HiTek Power has carried out a thorough review of all hazardous waste usage/types, which allowed the company to eliminate the use (by replacement with a less/non-hazardous alternative) of many hazardous materials. Through the company’s COSHH process all new materials are evaluated for possible environmental and safety impact to ensure the use of environmentally damaging substances is avoided wherever possible.
Through the company’s
RoHS programme elimination of the use of a number of environmentally damaging substances has been achieved.
Reduction
As part of the company’s hazardous waste and paper usage reduction programme, the shelf life material monitoring system has been enhanced to ensure less waste (out-of-shelf-life material) is generated because of better usage prior to end of life expiry date and less paper is now being used because of various initiatives such as copying both sides, paper reuse, electronic copies instead of hard copies, printing to smaller size paper etc. Packing (both internal processing; supplier and product) is designed to ensure the minimum amount of waste is produced whilst still maintaining its primary protection function.
Reuse
HiTek Power has put arrangements in place with many of its suppliers for packaging reuse, resulting in less waste generation with the added bonus of reduced cost over the total packaging usage life.
Product packaging is reused (providing it meets an acceptable quality standard) by HiTek Power’s Service process and, where possible, arrangements have been put in place with customers for new product packaging also to be reused. Where packing is to be reused on new products, the packing design is given special emphasis as part of the company’s design process to ensure it maintains its primary product protection role over the required number of delivery cycles.
Polystyrene beads and bubble wrap are segregated at goods receiving and reused by various company processes. The company’s PCB cleaning plant solvent is processed then reused on an ongoing basis.
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Reuse of polystyrene
chips
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Examples of reusable supplier packaging
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Recycle
HiTek Power recycles where possible to ensure its waste disposal landfill footprint is kept to an absolute minimum. HiTek Power currently recycles through various agencies/organizations all:
Paper
Cardboard
Electrical waste
Ink/toner cartridges
Soft plastics
Plastic cups
Metals
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Disposal
Residual waste is disposed of through approved and licensed waste carriers, as is required by ‘duty of care’ legislation. HiTek Power ensures its waste is segregated into the correct waste stream and during storage (prior to pick up) all waste containers are kept locked and secure. Since the HiTek Power ISO 14001:2004 process was started in August 2006 the amount of waste sent by the company to landfill has reduced by a very significant amount (over 75%); resulting in financial benefits as well as the overall environmental performance improvement.
Secure waste storage facilities
Example of internal waste stream segregation bins
HiTek Power has ongoing environmental improvement programmes to improve the company’s performance in key areas such as general waste reduction, hazardous waste reduction, RoHS compliant product rollout, paper usage reduction, increasing recycling etc. Improvement teams are allocated to each initiative, with a planned systematic approach being taken to ensure solid long term solutions are found that embed the improvements into the company’s processes.
As part of the company’s environmental improvement programme, monitoring and measurement is carried out on a large number of the company’s environmental aspects; these include but are not limited to:
Water usage
Electricity usage
Gas usage
Hazardous waste generation
General waste generation
RoHS product implementation
Paper usage
Cardboard recycling
As part of the company’s emergency preparedness and response planning, a detailed disaster recovery plan has been generated. This plan details how the company protects the safety of individuals and mitigates any potential damage to the environment, as well as ensuring continuation of business in the event of disaster incidents. As part of this planning process, coverage for key process and equipment has been put in place, so any deviation in product delivery from promised timelines is kept to the absolute minimum no matter what extreme circumstances may occur.
Emergency preparedness includes planning for more localised emergencies such as spillage of various substances (oil, liquid silicon and other encapsulation materials etc) and localised flooding. Spill kits of various types have been strategically positioned around the company and appropriate training has been given in their use, this ensures localised spillage incidents are dealt with effectively without damage occurring to the environment. It should also be noted that the HiTek Power facility's main drainage system incorporates three interceptor units, to ensure any oil-based pollutants that should enter the drainage system are trapped and contained within the facility without reaching the wider environment.
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Spill kit with granules
(for oil based spill)
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Standard spill kit
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The company site includes hedging and a wild wooded area; these areas are maintained in a way that ensures minimum disturbance of wildlife; green waste removed from the site is recycled.
HiTek Power facility –
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View of hedging/wooded area
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View of front hedging
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For further information about the Environmental process at HiTek Power please contact:
Jeff Edwards, Director of Quality and Compliance