ENVIRONMENTAL STATEMENT

Kakou recognises that its business activities interact with the environment in a variety of ways.

These activities have an impact in the key areas of:
• Technology and IP development
• Raw material use
• Energy and water use
• Generation of waste materials

The company recognises that it has a responsibility to help protect the environment wherever it has an opportunity to do so, be a responsible neighbour and to provide a healthy, safe and secure environment for its employees to work in.

As such, the company is committed to:
• Continual improvement in the environmental impact of its business activities
• Improving the environmental benefits provided through the continual development of its research and development activities, particularly in the areas of waste treatment, environmental engineering and renewable energy
• Preventing pollution
• Complying with all relevant legal, customer, and other third party requirements
• Adopting best practices applicable to its activities wherever it is practical to do so

The company will achieve these commitments through the following means:
• The implementation and maintenance of an Environmental Management System that is independently certified as compliant with ISO 14001:2015
• Complying with Environment Agency Directives (WEEE) and (RoHS).
• Employing processes that identify the aspects of the company’s business that have an environmental impact and quantifying the significance of each aspect
• Setting objectives for reducing its environmental impact and maintaining an environmental performance improvement programme to enable them to be achieved
• Ensuring that its employees, suppliers and customers are aware of any support required by them to support the company’s commitments and environmental objectives
• Training its employees in good environmental protection practices and encouraging employee involvement in environmental improvement initiatives
• Where possible, advising clients on options for substituting materials and processes for ones with lower environmental impact
• Continually monitoring the environmental impact of its business activities

The implementation of this Environmental Policy is fundamental to the success of the company’s business and must be supported by all employees as an integral part of their daily work.

Design for the Environment (DfE) is a design approach to reduce the overall human health and environmental impact of a product, process or service, where impacts are considered across its life cycle.

The key focus of DfE is to minimize the environmental-economic cost to consumers while still focusing on the life-cycle framework of the product. By balancing both customer needs as well as environmental and social impacts DfE aims to improve the product use experience both for consumers and producers, while minimally impacting the environment.

Design for Environment Practices
Four main concepts that fall under the DfE umbrella are:

1. Design for environmental processing and manufacturing: This ensures that raw material extraction (mining, drilling, etc.), processing (processing reusable materials, metal melting, etc.) and manufacturing are done using materials and processes which are not dangerous to the environment or the employees working on said processes. This includes the minimisation of waste and hazardous by-products, air pollution, energy expenditure and other factors.

2. Design for environmental packaging: This ensures that the materials used in packaging are environmentally friendly, which can be achieved through the reuse of shipping products, elimination of unnecessary paper and packaging products, efficient use of materials and space, use of recycled and/or recyclable materials.

3. Design for disposal or reuse: The end-of-life of a product is very important, because some products emit dangerous chemicals into the air, ground and water after they are disposed of in a landfill. Planning for the reuse or refurbishing of a product will change the types of materials that would be used, how they could later be disassembled and reused, and the environmental impacts such materials have.

4. Design for energy efficiency: The design of products to reduce overall energy consumption throughout the product’s life.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is employed to forecast the impacts of different (production) alternatives of the product in question, thus being able to choose the most environmentally friendly. A life cycle analysis can serve as a tool when determining the environmental impact of a product or process.

Proper LCAs can help a designer compare several different products according to several categories, such as energy use, toxicity, acidification, CO2 emissions, ozone depletion, resource depletion and many others. By comparing different products, designers can make decisions about which environmental hazard to focus on in order to make the product more environmentally friendly.

Conflict resources are natural resources extracted in a conflict zone and sold to perpetuate the fighting. There is both anecdotal and statistical evidence that belligerent accessibility to precious commodities can prolong conflicts. The most prominent contemporary example is the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where various armies, rebel groups, and outside actors have profited from mining while contributing to violence and exploitation during wars in the region.

The most commonly mined conflict resources (known as 3TGs) are cassiterite (for tin), wolframite (for tungsten), coltan (for tantalum), and gold ore, which are extracted from the Eastern Congo, and passed through a variety of intermediaries before being purchased by multinational electronics companies. These minerals are essential in the manufacture of a variety of devices, including consumer electronics such as mobile phones, laptops, and MP3 players.

Kakou is committed to complying with legislation and aligning with customer requirements relating to conflict resources. We take careful measures to avoid procuring 3TG metals that are directly or indirectly associated with human rights violations or environmental damage in the Democratic Republic of Congo and its neighbouring countries.

We require all our suppliers and subcontractors to provide evidence that they are not sourcing 3TG metals (Tantalum, Tungsten, Tin and Gold) through any channels that fund armed groups in the eastern provinces of Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and surrounding regions.

A list of conflict-free component manufacturers can be found here – http://www.conflictfreesourcing.org/about/members-and-collaborations/