Saab 2013 Annual Report Download - page 43

SAAB ANNUAL REPORT 2013 39
ENVIRONMENT
ALLIANCES FOR SUSTAINABLE
SOLUTIONS
Saab actively works to reduce its impact on the envi-
ronment and climate. A key component of this work is
collaboration with the industry to create sustainable
solutions for the future. The most important environ-
mental aspects for us are phasing out hazardous che-
micals, minimising environmental risks and reducing
the environmental impact of our operations and pro-
ducts. Saab also develops products that help improve
the environment (see examples on pages 32–33).
e use of certain hazardous chemicals is still necessary to meet
security and technical performance requirements in the aerospace
and defence industry. Over the past ten years, we have greatly
reduced the use of hazardous substances such as organic solvents,
trichloroethylene, chromium and cadmium.
Each year the business areas update their strategy documents
and action plans for phasing out hazardous substances, a process
that will proceed for many years. e Environmental Council mo-
nitors this work on a regular basis.
Our products are not currently covered by the EU’s RoHS
directive (Restriction on the use of certain Hazardous Substances
in electrical and electronic equipment), although certain products
may eventually be covered. We are working to reduce the use of
the substances regulated by the directive, and our work with ha-
zardous substances corresponds well with the requirements of the
EU’s chemicals law – Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation
of Chemicals (REACH).
In 2011–2013, Saab acquired and tested an IS/IT tool to manage
information on the chemicals contained in its products. Imple-
mentation will begin in 2014. e tool will also be used to verify
that the products meet current chemical requirements imposed
by law and by customers.
Environmental issues covered by legislation are reported in
Note 48.
To lower its CO2 emissions, Saab works continuously to reduce
energy consumption at its plants and to reduce the amount of
business travel and number of test ights.
Saab was ranked on the CDP (Climate Disclosure Project) Lead-
ership Index for six consecutive years (2006–2011). e index is
an important component of CDP’s annual Nordic 260 Climate
Change Report, which highlights the companies on the Nordic
stock exchanges that have worked most professionally with cor-
porate governance related to climate reporting issues. Unfortuna-
tely, we did not score well enough to make the Leadership Index
in 2012, chiey because our reporting was not suciently explicit.
We are working to become better at meeting the requirements.
Information about CDP and our complete report is available at
www.cdproject.net.
We have many suppliers around the world. Because we purcha-
se from suppliers a large share of the components and subsystems
used in our products, our suppliers have a great impact on our
environmental work. We therefore require that our suppliers act
responsibly and follow our requirements as well as those of the
EU and our customers. e general environmental requirements
imposed on our suppliers are available on our supplier portal,
www.saabgroup.com/supplier. In 2013 the routines for imposing
and monitoring suppliers’ environmental requirements were
given higher priority, especially since we are introducing uniform
procurement and supplier processes for Saab units.
Overall ambition
Our climate objective is to reduce our relative CO2 emissions by
20 per cent during the period 2007–2020. e value relates to our
total annual sales in MSEK.
We are also working to identify and phase out the use of
hazardous chemicals that pose unacceptable risks and substances
that may be subject to regulation. We are analysing the need for
hazardous chemicals and communicating our ndings internally
and to our suppliers.
Results
Climate change
During the period 2007–2013, our relative CO2 emissions
decreased from 2.7 to 2.4 tonnes per MSEK. Vehicles, aircra,
business travel and goods transports account for 58 per cent of
THREE QUESTIONS TO
Soe Jönsson, Environmental and
Chemical co-ordinator at Business
Area Dynamics
Tell us about the phase-out!
“The Dynamics business area’s environmental
goals and long-term strategy determine which
substances we will be phasing out. We’re looking
in the market for alternatives that have fewer
health and environmental effects, and in some
cases we’re developing our own products. Since
we manufacture pyrotechnic substances and
primers, we can develop our own lead-free materi-
als and substances. But we’re also working on
phasing out chromates, cadmium and trichloro-
ethylene.”
How far have you come?
“ At the moment we’re testing and qualifying surface
treatments that are free of hexavalent chromium for
all material. Due to the products’ various technical
requirements, we need to develop different alterna-
tives for different products. When it comes to new
products we’ve already ruled out hexavalent chro-
mium.”
What are your plans for 2014?
“ We will continue to qualify replacements and
phase out hazardous substances. We will develop
phase-out plans once we have qualied options.”