The Journey of Green
The environment has long been a priority for Accuride and over the years, we've continued to implement practices to ensure that when we take care of business, we also take care of the environment. There are a number of things Accuride does to be environmentally conscious. Some actions are small, while others are major changes in manufacturing processes, such as the revisions made to our plating process.
RoHS Compliance
RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) compliance means products (and waste) contain minimal levels of lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, PBB, and PBDE. Back in July 2005, Accuride began changing the plating process from Hexavalent to Trivalent to adhere to the standards set forth in the RoHS Directive. Today, all Accuride slides and components such as bumpers and plastic housings are RoHS compliant. This has reduced exposure to hazardous substances throughout the entire product chain, from the manufacturing staff to the consumer.
Energy Reduction
Through process improvements, Accuride reduced the number of plating machines in our Mexicali, Mexico plant by one-third, while maintaining the same level of production. This saved a significant amount of electricity, natural gas, and water.
Compressed air plays a part in slide manufacturing and the Accuride engineering team developed an innovative method to maintain system pressurization that reduced the load (and energy required to support that load) by 10 to 20%.
Water Usage
Accuride actively seeks methods to reduce water consumption during the manufacturing process. In fact, ongoing efforts in the Mexicali plant have resulted in a 33% reduction of the water volume used in the electroplating process.
Flow restrictor systems carefully control the amount of water used by the plating machines.
Waste Treatment
All process water is treated to neutralize or minimize harmful components.
Accuride uses high-tech polymers to trap or encapsulate the harmful components left by manufacturing.
Used rags are cleaned to remove oil and other residues and rags are reused multiple times. When discarded, they are cleaned one last time and disposed of according to environmental requirements.
ISO 14001 Environmental Policy Program
This is a comprehensive set of standards for environmental management practices. Certification requires evaluation by a third-party auditor.
Diez, Germany plant is certified to the ISO 14001 Environmental Standard.
The Mexicali, Mexico plant has an established program that adheres to the ISO 14001 standards and policies. An internal team performs audits on a regular basis.
Accuride strives to have as little negative effect on the environment as possible. Our environmental policy includes a commitment to adhering to local environmental laws (even exceeding the standards, whenever practical), using raw materials efficiently, and reducing waste.