SHEQ - more than just a management system

Safety, social responsibility, health, environmental protection and quality: setting the standards worldwide, Cognis is pursuing the same high ideals as an independent company. At all the Cognis sites the same international quality, environmental, health, social, and safety philosophy apply.

Progress in this field is constantly monitored by an integrated management system that acquires the relevant data from all the production sites and ascertains compliance with the corresponding codes of practice. It is a scheme that has engendered considerable success: in 2001,Cognis became the first chemical company to achieve worldwide certification to both
ISO 9001 (Quality Management Systems) and ISO 14001 (Environmental Management Systems).

The DQS (German Organization for the Certification of Management Systems) also provided Cognis with an outstanding reference, confirming that the SHEQ management system of the company, which incorporates all its sites worldwide “goes beyond the requirements of ISO standards“.

This recognition brings with it some serious obligations. So Cognis involves carefully selected independent experts in its regular audits. Their specialist knowledge serves to further augment the continuously growing internal expertise at the company. This can often result in a further tightening of the already exemplary company standards that apply in this domain.

On the other hand, the uniqueness of this position also brings the company specific benefits in the marketplace: the customers - often themselves globally aligned – can thus rely fully on Cognis products worldwide satisfying uniformly high criteria.

For more information please download the Sustainability Report 2007.