ILS & the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals
ILS has gone green
At ILS, we will strive to become a more sustainable company with a greater focus on a greener and more sustainable future. As a distribution company, however, ILS cannot contribute to things like green energy, but we have a focus on reducing our carbon footprint as a company.
As a company, we are increasingly being faced with the concept of ”greener purchasing”, which we would like to live up to.
Small steps can also go a long way
At ILS, over the past two years we have been working on an agenda based on the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 sub-targets. The workplace organization at ILS has mapped out how ILS as a company can contribute to and achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals in a positive direction by analyzing all the sub-targets and matching them with our company profile and possible implementation.
The very area of sustainability and green transition is new to ILS, and therefore not something ILS can yet call itself an expert in. Therefore, when we meet for status meetings, coffee meetings, or user meetings, we hope that you will bring ideas that you think we should consider from a sustainability perspective.
ILS works on 6 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals
It has been important for the occupational health and safety organization to emphasize sub-goals that the ILS will be able to measure over time. For the ILS, it is important that we have measurable results that we can follow and build on with the intention of constantly improving. The ILS is a small-sized company. Nevertheless, our focus on contributing to sustainability and green transition is as much as possible. We operate on the principle that if everyone makes a small difference, the overall difference will be great.
The following sub-targets are a selection of our already implemented sub-targets that are part of our quality management system and therefore a measurable requirement that ILS works from.
ILS works among other things with the following sub-goals;
3.5 Prevention and treatment of substance abuse
The sub-goal focuses on the prevention and treatment of substance abuse. Although ILS as a company cannot be involved in a direct framework for health promotion in this area, ILS believes that we as a company can contribute with our knowledge of the best analytical instruments for precisely analyzing drug abuse.
5 Equality
The entire Sustainable Development Goal focuses on strengthening women's rights and opportunities, as well as ensuring equality.
At ILS, there are equal opportunities and equal rights regardless of gender.
6.3 Reduction of pollution of the water quality
The sub-goal aims to ensure the improvement of water quality by, among other things, avoiding pollution and minimizing the release of chemicals. ILS handles and disposes of chemicals in accordance with applicable legislation. ILS minimizes the release of chemicals, including reagents, by having a high standard of control and efficiency in our warehouse management. This is ensured, among other things, by having delivery agreements with almost all of our laboratories.
In the future, ILS will work to minimize the waste of reagents, for example due to expiration dates, and ensure that all our reagents are handled correctly by our customers based on the information provided in our safety data sheets.
11.6 Negative environmental impact
The sub-goal focuses on how we reduce the negative environmental impact, including, among other things, waste management. ILS strives to minimize the negative environmental impact as much as possible by, among other things, always sorting waste correctly, from paper to the destruction of analytical instruments.
12.4-12.8 Sustainable consumption and production
The sub-targets focus, among other things, on reducing the footprint we leave on nature, as well as how to manage chemicals and waste in an environmentally responsible way throughout their life cycle; including recycling, recovery, and reuse. ILS has a strong focus on the recycling and reuse of packaging and packaging fillers. This means that our shipment of goods is mainly done in reused boxes, with as little waste space as possible. In our company, we also ensure proper waste sorting, as well as minimizing waste through everything from printing on paper to disposing of expired reagents. In laboratories, you will therefore see that you receive boxes with different supplier brands, as well as different fillings. In the future, ILS will measure the consumption of, among other things, cardboard and polystyrene, and have a recycling rate of up to 100%.
16.5 Corruption and bribery
The sub-goal may seem rhetorical, but it is important for ILS to emphasize to our customers that we take a strong stance against accepting and giving bribes. As a company, ILS will always ensure transparency so that there is no doubt that ILS takes a strong stance against both corruption and bribery.
If you have questions or are interested in learning more about our work to become a greener and more sustainable company, please feel free to contact the occupational health and safety team; Peter Nygaard (pn@ilsdk.dk) or Kia Bekker Brandal (kbb@ilsdk.dk).
