Protecting the environment
Environmental targets and measures are derived and implemented on the basis of environmentally relevant processes and data recorded across the entire group. This results in a considerable contribution to the protection of the environment. The environmental management system ISO 14001 is used to manage environmental concerns in Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Romania.
Emissions below required limits
ALPINE’s asphalt mixing plants achieve considerably lower emission values than permitted by law. For the most part, production and heating plants are converted to fuel with lower emission. The requirements of various Clean Air Acts and Directives (”Emissionshöchstmengengesetz-Luft”, “Immissionsschutzgesetz-Luft” and “Technischer Anleitung zu Reinhaltung von Luft”) are being complied with in every subsidiary, building yard and asphalt mixing plant.
Environmentally friendly fleet of vehicles and machinery
Almost the entire vehicle fleet at ALPINE runs on Diesel. Every construction vehicle is equipped with a Diesel engine and one tenth of all cars, vans and buses already are equipped with a Diesel particulate filter. Since 2008, all vehicles are purchased in alignment with applicable European environmental regulations. Emission values of the entire fleet are additionally checked at regular intervals.
Environmental experts
The company ÖKOTECHNA Entsorgungs- und Umwelttechnik GmbH is part of the ALPINE group and specialized in environmentally friendly procedures in building yards. The range of ÖKOTECHNA services and products covers e.g. the recycling of undestroyed mineral parts of buildings (savings in primary resources from e.g. quarries and gravel pits), providing systems to environmentally friendly dispose of construction site material (installation of “sorting islands” to enable picking up presorted material), organization and handling of construction site disposal within the ALPINE group, centralised sorting of rubbish and remainder of construction-site and commercial waste, handling of decontamination projects and operation of a waste site for construction-site waste. In 2010, ÖKOTECHNA was the first Austrian company to receive the “Certified mobile recycling plant” award.
Direct energy savings
Some of the measurements developed and implemented to save energy are the use of energy-saving lamps, ideal settings and perfect control of heating devices as well as the purchase of flat screens. Perfect thermal insulation is a must in the construction of office buildings. Company directives on travel provide for an increased use of public transportation and car-pooling as a response to the increasingly required mobility. Business trips and related emissions are reduced through the regular use of videoconferencing facilities. Environmentally friendly construction methods are used in construction and vibrations and creation of dust is avoided as much as possible. Our objective is and will remain a continuous and sustainable sensitization of employees in the proper use of resources.
Ecoprofit
The objective of the Ecoprofit programme is the conservation of resources in companies through the use of innovative and sustainable technologies and the consequential improvement of the ecological situation in cities/regions. If a company successfully participates it is awarded the Ecoprofit Label.
Since 2009, ALPINE participates in the Ecoprofit programme. For the successes it had achieved it was awarded the Ecoprofit Label in that year. A medium-term objective is the implementation of positive experiences made and successes achieved in pilot projects at all ALPINE locations.
For the year 2010, ALPINE Oberlaa has applied to receive the Ecoprofit award once more. In this context, the focus continues to be on the reduction of environmentally relevant resources through direct measures (e.g. reduction of paper, electricity, waste) and employee sensitization.
Focal points of Ecoprofit 2011
For 2011, further environmentally relevant projects are planned in addition to maintaining and optimising environmentally friendly measurements from 2010. These measures cover e.g. a pilot project for the reduction of fuel consumption of company cars through instruction and training of drivers, considering energy consumption when procuring working appliances with a high energy consumption and the provision of e-bikes.