Mission
Statement
Statement
Engineers are available to assist.
Edmund Optics is proudly dedicated to becoming sustainable and has started this journey with the creation of a global sustainability committee, with representatives from each of our 18 locations. We understand that this journey will be a long one, but we are facing all facets related to it with full commitment. In this, we want to follow other pioneers in optics: companies like Schott, SICK, and ThorLabs, and aim to become one of the main role models and leaders within the photonics community that can inspire others to also take this path. As educator to other manufacturers who are interested in ensuring their optical manufacturing processes are done in an environmentally friendly atmosphere, we want to show our plans and our progress with a high level of transparency as we believe in collaboration and are convinced that we can achieve more as a group than just acting individually.
Like most sustainability initiatives, Edmund Optics' sustainability plan contains three pillars: corporate governance (economic sustainability), work force management (social sustainability), and environmental sustainability. Edmund Optics will focus on ensuring that our environmental sustainability not only meets the increasingly demanding requirements of our customers and our governments, but also have Edmund Optics contributing to the development into that direction within the optics and photonics communities.
Edmund Optics will become a company that is sustainable, which includes being environmentally responsible to the world, socially responsible to our stakeholders, and financially responsible to allow the company to thrive and grow. This sustainability will be part of the culture of Edmund Optics, from leadership to all of our stakeholders, including our customers, employees, shareholders, and our varied global supply chain and strategic partners.
Our team’s mission is to create, develop, and set a sustainability plan for Edmund Optics worldwide. The team is focusing on the environmental branch of sustainability first and is evaluating the current impact to the environment of all Edmund Optics facilities.
Like any good process, the first step for us is to document our current state. Our global sustainability team has been documenting all of the processes from all of our 18 facilities around the world, capturing everything from electricity and water consumption, to the carbon footprint our products take travelling around the world, to manufacturing waste. From there, we will be building out our future state, focusing on three specific areas of improvement:
Our plan is to understand the waste associated with optical manufacturing and assembly, build improvement plans to minimize this waste, and partner with reputable companies all around the globe to handle recycling and disposal, reducing our overall environmental footprint.
Edmund Optics ships product from our eight factories to distribution centers and customers around the world. Our goal is to decrease single-use plastics, to reduce the amount of intercompany and subcontracting packaging, and to work with our supply chain to reduce wastes.
Edmund Optics sends millions of catalogs to our customers each year. We are committed to enhancing the sustainability of the catalog by improving its production, from sourcing materials to printing & distribution, to minimize our environmental impact and maximize efficiency.
Once these changes have been implemented, we will look at the next three initiatives.
Edmund Optics has partnered with various organizations dedicated to environmental sustainability within the optics community. Edmund Optics considers itself honored to be a member of the sustainability committees for SPIE and EPIC. In addition, Edmund Optics has partnered with various government agencies, research universities, and start-ups across the Americas and Europe to help develop new technologies and new processes for making the optics manufacturing process sustainable. Edmund Optics is also focusing on our diverse supply chain, educating our curated supplier base and ensuring these suppliers meet the world's new standards for sustainability.
Edmund Optics is following the tried-and-true lean six sigma processes for understanding our environmental footprint, like the DMAIC process. Our initial processes of 1) defining opportunities with high potential for improvement and 2) measuring our current state are almost completed. We are working with a third-party software system to determine the carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions at each of our 18 facilities. We expect to complete this effort by the summer of 2024. Once completed, we will be joining the ranks of those companies audited by EcoVadis, a third-party auditing agency who will rate our performance on all three pillars of sustainability: corporate governance, work force management, and environmental sustainability. We continue to roll out ISO 14001 certification efforts to all our facilities in order to join our Barrington NJ facility's ISO 14001 certification, and our Shenzhen China facility's ISO 14064 certification. Learn more about our ISO certifications. In addition, Edmund Optics had joined other scientific-based companies that have committed to the SBTI (Science Based Targets Initiative) to set emissions reduction targets to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels.
As a company led by the third-generation of the Edmund family, Edmund Optics understands how important it is to ensure both the sustainability of the company and the sustainability of the planet.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please reach out to us at [email protected].
Jeff Harvey
Chief Innovation Officer
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