A hundred-year balance Annual Report 2010 - Uzin Utz AG

a complete laying materials system for flooring construction.
Here Uzin Utz AG, as the leader in the sector,
has produced EPDs for the complete system structure
in the reporting year, and has had them validated. This
consists of the dispersion primer UZIN PE 60 and the
mineral levelling compound UZIN NC 170 LevelStar for
the substrate preparation and the dispersion products
UZIN KE 66 or UZIN UZ 88 for the laying of the relevant
floor coverings. For the first time, complete calculations
are now possible, which can be included in the building’s
eco-balance. Uzin Utz AG shows by this example that
ecological responsibility and product innovation are by
no means mutually contradictory. Internal key ecological
figures have also been established for the first time,
which also document a quantitative confirmation of the
sustainability initiative. 76.2% of the company’s sales in
2010 were generated with products which comply with
the strictest ecological emission requirements, such as
those of the Blue Angel and the Emicode. Uzin Utz AG
therefore stands out not only for its technical expertise
on all aspects of flooring, but is also setting new standards
in the sector, which also take into account quantitative
ecological aspects. Here the company has been
the first to put sustainability activities on a confirmable
and verifiable foundation.
b) New Emicode “EC 1 Plus”
For many years now, Uzin Utz AG has placed the focus of
its activities on the development of products which are
“safe” for the environment, the floor layer and the endconsumer.
With the assistance of the R&D specialists of
Uzin Utz AG, the “Gemeinschaft Emissionskontrollierte
Verlegewerkstoffe, Klebstoffe und Bauprodukte” (GEV)
(“Association for emission-controlled laying materials,
adhesives and building products”) has revised the Emicode
classification for building products. Amongst other
things, they have developed a new premium class “EC 1
Plus”, which even exceeds the demanding requirements
of the previous highest category “EC 1 – very low-emission”.
The “new” EC 1 Plus limit values are therefore stricter
than the limit values required for Blue Angel certification.
The “new” Emicode has one decisive advantage
in comparison to the old system: Due to the modified
emission testing procedure, t is now possible for the first
time to make direct comparisons of the test results to
the Blue Angel, the AgBB system and the Emicode. Only
one emission test will therefore be required in future in
order to obtain certificates of different emission seals.
With an eye to future European regulations, such as the
revision of the EC Building Products Directive and the
building approval obligation for parquet adhesives from
1st January 2011 and for floor covering adhesives from
1st January 2012, the specialist departments of Chemical
Analysis, Product Safety and Fluid Product Development,
in a comprehensive test procedure, have subjected
the existing ecological product range to the new certification
system and adapted it to the “new” Emicode requirements.
Despite this high hurdle, a major proportion
of the products previously designated as EC 1 will in future
comply with the stricter criteria of the “new” label
EC 1 Plus, since this ecological product area always had
to meet a high internal quality standard at Uzin Utz AG.
About 75% of the previous EC 1 products have now been
qualified for the new exclusive class EC 1 Plus.
c) REACH
From 1st December 2010, under the REACH requirements,
there exists a notification obligation in the CLP directory
(Classification, Labelling and Packaging) of the European
Chemical Agency ECHA for importers of raw materials
from non-EU countries. As an importer of non-EU raw
materials, Uzin Utz AG is therefore always subject to this
notification obligation, firstly if products are imported
which contain hazardous substances requiring a particular
designation of the product, and secondly if products
are imported which are not subject to designation, and
contain substances which are not dangerous but subject
to registration, and which exceed the reference limit of
one tonne per year. In order to comply with these obligations,
which are coupled to the REACH requirements,
substantial capacity in the specialist department Product
Safety was applied in the reporting year 2010 to
make the necessary contribution to the intended comprehensive
European database for the classification and
designation of the substances described above.
5. Quality assurance system
within the Uzin Utz Group
The general objective of quality assurance management
and the internal control system is to ensure the quality
of UZIN products, which is acknowledged worldwide.
The specialist departments of Quality Management
and International R&D started a comprehensive project
in 2010, in order to ensure that certain product groups
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