Siemens 2014 Annual Report Download - page 223

247 D. Consolidated Financial Statements
337 E. Additional Information
213 C. Overall assessment of the economic position
214 C. Subsequent events
215 C. Sustainability and citizenship
225 C. Report on expected developments and
associated material opportunities and risks
242 C. Compensation Report and legal disclosures
242 C. Siemens AG (Discussion on basis
of German Commercial Code)

standard defines requirements to reduce the environmental
impact of our products and systems during the production, use
and disposal phase and is an integral part of our business pro-
cesses. We conduct regular internal reviews of our environmen-
tal performance and progress, in order to create a cycle of con-
tinual improvement.
Our commitment to continual improvement led to two environ-
mental protection programs in fiscal : “Serve the Environ-
ment” for industrial environmental protection and “Product Eco
Excellence” for product-related environmental protection. Both
programs were reconfirmed and extended in fiscal . The
general objectives to improve energy and resource efficiency, to
fulfill growing international requirements with regard to envi-
ronmental protection, to increase customer benefits, and to
proactively strengthen our position as a sustainable company
will be kept. The two reconfirmed programs will run from 
to .
C... INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
Our industrial environmental protection efforts focus on opti-
mizing energy and resource efficiency at our sites. With the
current “Serve the Environment” program we have been com-
mitted to the following Siemens-wide main targets in the time
period fiscal  to :
> to continue our systematic effort to improve
energy efficiency, and thereby achieve corresponding
improvement in our carbon dioxide efficiency;
> to improve the waste efficiency each year by  %; and
> to reduce waste for disposal each year by  %.
Furthermore, Siemens continued with the water risk manage-
ment approach: In locations where there are particular water
risks or negative impacts on the environment (for example as a
result of aridity, high waste-water loads or poorly developed
technical infrastructure), the local sites need to define targets
matched to local conditions. Finally, our “Serve the Environ-
ment” program also addressed air pollution by seeking alterna-
tive solutions for any ozone-depleting substances still in legally
permissible use and control VOC (Volatile organic compounds)
emissions. For continuation of the Serve the Environment pro-
gram energy and waste efficiency aspects will be integrated
into our supply chain. Air pollution control will be considered
holistically, taking account not only of own emissions but also
of the local air immission situation at our production plants
and offices. Climate change induced impacts of water use in
our businesses will also be integrated.
We achieved the targets we set ourselves for fiscal . The
energy efficiency could be improved due to implementation of
energy efficiency measures and implementation of energy
management systems. Due to this and to reasonable energy
procurement and increased share of renewable energy in elec-
tricity mix the CO efficiency was increased considerably.
C... PRODUCT-RELATED
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
The major focus of product-related environmental protection is
to improve the overall environmental performance of our prod-
ucts and systems. Therefore the existing “Product Eco Excel-
lence” program will continue its approach regarding elements
related to the product life cycle by integrating aspects of the
circular economy and resource efficiency. The program has a
modular design and offers innovative solutions to accomplish
a higher transparency in terms of declarable substances, to de-
velop and integrate a set of measures to improve resource effi-
ciency of materials (e.g. scarcity, criticality) and to increase our
claim on product environmental footprint information. On the
basis of mandatory requirements as defined in our internal
environmental standard, we support the reduction of the envi-
ronmental impacts of our products and systems during product
development, production, use and end of life. Additionally, the
program aims to better prepare the operating units for future
regulatory and customer requirements, to strengthen environ-
mental communication, and to broaden environmental aware-
ness among our employees. In the time period fiscal  to
fiscal  for the main elements of the program following
objectives have been reached:
>
Transparency was enhanced with our list of declarable sub-
stances (LoDS), comprising substances that are restricted in
use due to regional or application-specific regulations.
> Development and application of a methodological approach
for better assessing risks such as environmental, toxicologi-
cal and future availability risks associated with used materi-
als and substances. The application has been verified within
our business.
>
Establishment of a harmonized procedure on the basis of ISO
 /  (Life-cycle-assessment) for determining the “eco-
logical footprint” of our products and thereof derived envi-
ronmental product declarations based on the requirements
of ISO .