EARTH DAY 2022

Our Environmental Management System
Makes Every Day Earth Day at UMP

Earth Day 2022 is coming up on April 22nd, and it’s a reminder to all of us of our responsibilities to protect the water, land, plants, and nature that make up our planet. Although individuals and governments must play their part in ensuring the earth’s sustainability, businesses must also acknowledge their obligation to safeguard the environment.

Here at Universal Metal Products (UMP), we are dedicated to minimizing the potential environmental impact of our products and processes by preventing pollution and complying with legislation and regulations. We are also committed to the continual improvement of our environmental management system.

What is an environmental management system?

UMP has systems to manage productivity, quality, finance, personnel, health, and safety. It is just as important to have an Environmental Management System (EMS) to address environmental issues.

Our EMS handles environmental matters by implementing policies with clear environmental objectives and goals and planning strategies to ensure that we conform to any regulations and legislation. Our EMS identifies the steps needed to achieve the objectives and the environmental impact our actions will have.

For example, one of our environmental goals was to reduce our electricity consumption by 2% by 2021. So far, we have upgraded lighting throughout the facility from fluorescent to energy-efficient LED lighting. We have also upgraded our air compressors to newer and more energy efficient units. These two measures alone have contributed to a significant and measurable reduction in kWh consumption. Because of the impact of COVID-19, we will continue with the 2% reduction goal into 2022.

Supply chain disruptions in early 2021 forced us to look for alternatives to traditional wood pallet
packaging. We were able to work with our customers and suppliers to introduce a USDA BioPreffered® solution which was also ISPM15 approved. These engineered molded wood pallets resulted in a significant cost avoidance while using recycled materials in the process.

What are the significant features of an EMS?

The most crucial feature is creating an environmental policy that lays out our approach to managing environmental issues and indicates how we will set ecological objectives. Here is UMP’s environmental policy:

Universal Metal Products, Inc. is committed to the continual improvement of our environmental management system – dedicated to minimizing the potential environmental impact of our products and processes and protection of the environment through the prevention of pollution, compliance with environmental legislation/regulation, and customer requirements through the setting of meaningful objectives and targets.

After we wrote our policy, we began the planning stage. The top management at UMP determined issues relevant to our organization’s context.  Appropriate external and internal context includes, but is not limited to:

  • Air quality
  • Water quality
  • Land use
  • Natural resources
  • Legal, regulatory, statutory
  • Recycling
  • Employee awareness
  • Customer requirements
  • Energy consumption
  • Effects on the local community

We have continuously monitored and measured our EMS since we implemented it, and we identify and modify any areas that don’t comply with our objectives and targets. Following any audits of our EMS, we take actions to address any opportunities for improvement it reveals.

Our senior managers also review the EMS and respond if they deem it necessary to change the environmental policy or our objectives. As a result, we should see continual improvement in our environmental performance.

UMP’s leaders support environmental sustainability

UMP’s top managers take environmental issues seriously. Our Environmental Engineer, Kevin Rossman, monitors the company’s objectives and tracks our progress toward them. It’s an important job, essential to the continual improvement and quicker achievement of the organization’s sustainability goals. And it’s a commitment we are all proud to make on Earth Day–and every other day of the year!

Universal Metal Products is a WBENC certified women-owned and operated business with over 75 years of experience. Call us at 440-943-3040 or fill out our convenient contact form if we can be of service to you.

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