Lifetime-Award – Ostermundigen (CH): When resource conservation becomes a life task

Electricity consumption -23 %, water consumption -13 %, consumption of fossil fuels -11 %, waste water quantity -11 % - that is the balance of ten years of professional environmental management at the Ostermundigen plant. This also results in annual cost savings of around CHF 300 000 and proof that sustainability is not just an ideological issue.

Our Swiss operations have had professional environmental management in place since the mid-1990s. ISO 14001 certification is standard. After this period of time, a topic can be considered established and it can be assumed that adequate know-how on it is available. However, it is not possible to draw any conclusions about the degree of commitment with which a topic is being driven forward - especially since environmental management at Emmi is not linked to binding specifications and measurable targets.

Thus, if continuous improvement measures are developed and implemented in a company over decades, this is due to a large and broad-based measure of intrinsic motivation. This cannot be ordered, but must be supported and exemplified by the decision-makers.

As the development of the key environmental figures of the Ostermundigen facility coincides with the impression one gets on site - a positive, open, innovative, forward-looking basic attitude in many respects - the jury of the Emmi Sustainability Award has decided to give a special award this year to Isidor Lauber, the site manager for many years and the driving force behind this positive record. Because although sustainability must be lived by everyone in a company, it cannot be done without role models and motivators.