Corporate & Social Responsibility Policy

Our values and policies

Corporate Responsibility

Afic’s commitment to CR as an all-embracing philosophy is receiving greater exposure in 2009 than at any time in the past. Allied with our existing environmental, employee and community welfare commitments, we embark on 2009 with the introduction of an in depth review of our responsibilities and the continuation and expansion of measurement systems.

The benefits of CR recognition are not only enjoyed by the company’s stakeholders but also by the Company itself.

As a company, Afic enjoys the pride that our commitment to the environment has instilled in its employees and stakeholders alike. Now by positively moving forwards and embracing CR, we seek to further our commitments.

At afic, we review and monitor our suppliers worldwide to ensure that applicable laws and guidelines are observed, particularly in the application of environmental and labour practices. This is backed up by regular visits to our suppliers and their operations.

Underpinning our CR Policy are our policies, procedures, and activities in key areas:

• Equal Opportunities Policy
• Environmental Policy
• Production, Re-cycling, and Waste Management Procedures
• Liaison with appropriate government  bodies to raise awareness and promote re-manufacturing quality processes and environmental benefits
• Supporting Charities
• Respect for IP

Afic CR Policy

Afic has always taken its social and environmental responsibilities very seriously. As a manufacturer, and even more so as a re-manufacturer, afic has always been a champion of processes that protect the environment, and has always sought to raise general awareness of these, and will continue to pro-actively do so. We will continue to do this.

Afic will also continue to check regularly that our suppliers employ happy employees and adhere to best practice in all areas of employee relations and environmental regulations.

Afic will always position itself as a champion for the industry of re-manufacturing and recycling, and works with other trade association members to lobby and work with organisations such as EU, EA, and DEFRA to achieve clarification and global benefits for all, including other competitive manufacturers. We will continue to openly do this.

Afic’s CR policy is specific about our responsibilities in many developing strands, market place, environment, community, suppliers, and the work place.

A Responsibility to the Market

afic will regularly check that our suppliers are behaving in an ethical and fair manner to their own employees ands also adhering to best practices that maximise recycling and reduce waste. Afic will always check that suppliers are adhering to all relevant employment and environmental laws in the countries in which they operate and not infringing any Intellectual Property Rights..

afic will constantly seek to raise market awareness in all areas, Corporations, Public Sector, and Government and International Legislative bodies (e.g. EU) regarding clarification of the processes in recycling and re-manufacturing and their benefits. afic will continue to lobby bodies such as the ASA (Advertising Standard Authority) where it is felt that any representation or advertisement by an Original Equipment Manufacturer has given the wrong impression of our industry and would therefore be misleading to customers.

Environment

afic will continue to be a champion for waste reduction, recycling, re-manufacturing, and the reduction of CO2 emissions. As stated above, we will lobby all relevant organisations to raise awareness.

afic will set an example to our customers, suppliers, employees and the market and measure our carbon footprint, and usage of other materials. We will share this information and advise customers.

We will continue to always offer our recycling facilities to our customers.

The afic Environmental Policy is given below.

Workplace

The afic Equal Opportunities Policy is given below.

afic will continue to adhere to the highest levels of fairness and ethics in all dealings with our employees, and will continue to adhere to the highest levels of responsibility in the area of employee health and safety.

We are proud of our OHSAS 18001 achievement and will rigorously continue this management programme.

We will continue to train our employees in all aspect of CR.

Community

Afic will  continue its policy of offering opportunity and training and work experience for first-time job seekers in the local areas where our offices are located.

Afic will work with local Chambers of Commerce in all our sites at all opportunities to bring appropriate benefits to the local community and businesses, and raise awareness at the local level of all Environmental issues.

Charities

afic will continue to work with all Charities through the Charities Buying Group. We will continue to support these charities.

The Charities Buying Group (CBG) is owned by the charity LEONARD CHESHIRE. Revenues from afic will continue to flow to LEONARD CHESHIRE to assist in the work that they do.

In this sense afic is unique and the only re-manufacturer promoted directly to all charities, to give direct saving to any charity and also a revenue stream to one major charity owning CBG. 

Equal Opportunities Policy

Applied Film Industries Company plc is an equal opportunities employer committed to equality of opportunity in employment.  It is the policy of Applied Film Industries Company plc to ensure that no present or future employees or job applicants are unfavourably discriminated against on the grounds of sex, sexuality, age, disability, race, creed, colour, ethnic or national origin, HIV, marital status, nor indirectly discriminated against through the application of a condition or requirement which cannot be shown to be justifiable.

Applied Film Industries Company plc will aim to ensure that opportunities for women to gain employment, training, development and promotion are improved. The company will also seek to ensure that applicants for all posts are open to both men and women equally.

Applied Film Industries Company plc will fully investigate any reported breeches of this policy, will initiate disciplinary proceedings and where necessary instigate appropriate disciplinary action.

Applied Film Industries Company plc will ensure that this policy is given to any recruitment agencies providing the company with staff and a copy of this policy will be available for all company staff and job applicants.

Recruitment, Selection and Promotion

The company will advertise all job vacancies in the local press and job centres in order to attract applicants from as wide an area as is practicable. All applicants will be treated impartially and will be considered and selected entirely on their potential ability to fulfil the required job function.

All employees will be given equal opportunity and encouragement within the company’s service to accept further responsibility and progression within the organisation structure.

All company staff involved with recruitment and employment issues will receive training in the application of this policy, to ensure that they are aware of the policy requirements.

Monitoring

In order to ensure that any form of discrimination does not occur within the company, the company will maintain and regularly review the employment records of all staff in order to monitor the progress of this policy. Monitoring will involve the collation, classification and review of information regarding ethnic/national origin, gender, disability of any employees, and the success rate of applicants.

The reviews will be conducted periodically to determine the effectiveness of the policy implementation. Any requirement to modify the policy to provide greater equality of opportunity for all staff and applicants will be given careful consideration before implementation.  

Responsibility

Applied Film Industries Company plc emphasises its commitment to equality of opportunity by effecting complete application of this policy and vesting the overall responsibility for the application of this policy in the Managing Director of Applied Film Industries Company plc.

Environmental Policy

This policy statement positively asserts our Company commitment to minimise, wherever practical, any harmful affects our business may have on the environment.

This policy statement will be reviewed and modified in accordance with changing events as often as is necessary to ensure that:

• The Company complies with and where practical exceeds the requirements of all relevant environmental legislation and regulations.
• Our products are remanufactured, tested and recycled to minimise resource consumption. We endeavour to use processes and materials that have minimum detrimental impact on the environment and constantly review these for the safer/greener alternatives.
• We adopt a “Reduce-Reuse-Recycle” policy for minimising and managing waste.  The remaining waste is disposed of in an environmentally responsible manner via registered waste disposal contractors.
• We continually review the potential for saving energy with the aim of reducing consumption whilst maintaining working comfort levels.
• We will endeavour to prevent or minimise any emissions (e.g. dust, odours, noise etc.) to the atmosphere, during re-manufacturing, assembly, testing and operation of our products.
• Wherever possible, we purchase from suppliers who adopt good environmental practices and offer environmentally friendly materials / products.
• Contractors employed to work on Company premises perform their duties in such a manner as to maintain the environmental standards adopted by the Company.
• We monitor and set objectives and targets to continually improve our environmental impacts.

We have obtained ISO 14001. The Managing Director has overall responsibility for ensuring that adequate measure and organisational arrangements are provided to achieve the objectives of this environmental policy.  However, it is the responsibility of all Company employees to collectively work towards achieving these objectives and we encourage them to recognise their responsibilities regarding protection of the environment.  We seek to establish a partnership with our customers and suppliers for exchange of environmental information and the reduction of harmful environmental impacts.