Environmental Management
Waste Management
As part of the ISO 14001 environmental management standard, we follow the “reduce, reuse, and recycle” hierarchy to guide our waste management practices. All of our sites have been challenged to reduce waste in their operations, including reducing single-use items in their breakrooms, printing of paper documents, as well as reducing other types of process waste such as metals and chemicals in our production facilities. As a minimum, all of our sites follow local regulations on waste disposal and recycling, but many of our sites have gone the extra mile to offer employees additional opportunities to recycle, including providing drop-off points for textile and shoe recycling, battery recycling, and paper shredding. On electronic waste, we comply with the European Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE), which mandates the collection and recycling of electric and electronic equipment at our sites in Europe.
Examples:
- In 2022, in an effort to be more efficient with our resources, we have migrated our phone service to Voice-over-Internet (VOIP) calling. This helped the Company eliminate physical phones, reducing the purchase of electronics, reducing the purchase of supporting server infrastructure, reducing our electricity usage, and reducing our costs.
- In 2022, across all sites, our teams recycled hundreds of desktops, laptops, printers, servers, and monitors.
Hazardous Waste
We have detailed procedures for managing hazardous waste at our facilities, aligned with guidelines from the Globally Harmonized System. We also follow local guidelines where relevant, such as the Toxic Substances Control Act in the U.S. and the Inventory of Existing Chemical Substances in China. We recycle hazardous waste through third-party waste management partners.
Water Usage
Through Novanta’s initial ESG assessment in 2021, we have determined that water usage, intensity, and source are not items requiring detailed tracking for Novanta at this time as a result of the low water usage levels from our operations. In the years to come, Novanta will continue to monitor water usage, water intensity, and water source.
Land Cover & Land Use Practices
Through Novanta’s initial ESG materiality assessment and risk analysis in 2021, we determined that Land Cover and Land Use Practices are not items requiring detailed tracking for Novanta at this time. In the years to come, Novanta will continue to monitor land use practices.
Physical Risks*
Novanta has worked with our insurance carriers to evaluate the physical risks that may affect our facilities, taking coastal and flood risk areas into special consideration. Through these evaluations, Novanta has maintained appropriate levels of insurance coverage to help minimize the financial consequences of catastrophic events that might occur. In 2022, we have not had any catastrophic physical events that have caused major business disruptions to our facilities. However, there is no assurance that such catastrophic physical events will not occur in the future. Novanta will continuously monitor our physical risks and enhance our risk response action plans as part of our ISO 14001 certification and compliance initiative.
*Risks associated with extreme weather, climate change and other physical impacts.