Note 1 - Beerenberg

and high focus on HSE in order to prevent injury and accidents
and to ensure consistent practice across the company.
All new employees must undergo separate HSE training,
and the company has produced an e-learning programme
specifically for this purpose. HSE forms part of all training
activities.
In partnership with the company’s occupational health
service, Beerenberg places great emphasis on health risk
assessments and health monitoring surveys. The prevention
of ergonomic and vibration injuries as well as hearing
damage was a particular focus area in this respect in 2012.
Beerenberg implemented a new preventive health regime in
2011 and continued to focus on providing adequate training
in this regime in 2012. Co-operation with employee representatives
has been good during 2012, both in established
co-operation forums such as the works council (BU) and the
working environment committee (AMU) in particular and
through regular contact and dialogue in general.
The board and the management should like to thank all
employees for their good work in 2012.
Equal opportunities
Beerenberg operates in a highly male-dominated industry,
and the company’s employees are predominantly male.
Around 5% are female, and most of these work in administrative
positions. The company aims to increase the proportion
of female employees and recruits new staff with this in
mind. There is currently one female member of the company’s
board of directors (employee observer).
Discrimination
Beerenberg is working systematically to promote the objectives
of the Anti-discrimination Act in its operations. The
objectives of the act are to promote equal opportunities,
ensure equal rights and prevent discrimination because of
functional ability, ethnicity, national origin, descent, religion
and creed. Relevant areas include recruitment, pay and
working conditions, development and career opportunities
and protection against discrimination.
The external environment
In 2012 the company updated its environmental accounts
with simplified environmental indicators that will make it
easier to correctly measure the company’s environmental
performance in the future. The environmental accounts also
include significant environmental aspects and other targets.
The company’s environmental aspects have been reviewed
and categorised according to location and project. As before,
the impact generated by the company on the external
environment largely relates to emissions of volatile organic
compounds (VOCs) as a by-product of paint products and
solvents. The impact on the environment of Beerenberg’s
activities is a natural consequence of the company’s areas of
business and of its operations. The company aims to optimise
energy use on its own sites.
The volume of VOC emissions is directly related to the
volume of assignments and type of products being used. The
company constantly tries to use alternative products with a
lesser environmental impact (the substitution requirement).
The company produces significant amounts of waste, but the
negative environmental impact is greatly reduced by effective
waste sorting and disposal (recycling of materials and
energy).
The company actively uses its environmental action plan to
plan and implement environmental initiatives. In the last
two years Beerenberg has published monthly environmental
tips to help generate a comprehensive understanding of its
environmental policy.
Beerenberg is certified according to:
NS-EN ISO 9001:2008 Quality management systems
NS-EN ISO 14001:2004 Environmental management
systems
Certification is also taking place under OHSAS 18001:2007
Occupational health and safety management systems
Please also see the separate HSE/Q annual report. It describes
the results that have been achieved in 2012 along
with identified improvement initiatives for 2013.
Future prospects
The company generated a very healthy profit seen in a historical
perspective, and its financial position is considered to
be robust.
Its focus on the sale of engineering services and of in-house
and patented service and product solutions will be intensified
with a view to further boosting the company’s competitive
edge and operating profits. The improvement processes
implemented by the company in 2012, with associated
margin growth, will be continued.
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