Because of our company culture, our social accountability and the environmental regulations, Maars has taken various measures to reduce the impact to the environment caused by its production process.

The points below show how Maars addresses this subject in practice:

1) In product development, people are continually searching for ways to modernise the existing systems to increase their life, to raise the quality level and to reduce the impact on the environment.

2) Maars is constantly working on improvements to the machinery and on reducing the impact on man and the environment.Some examples:

• Machines are improved in order to cause as little noise pollution as possible.
• The production of dust is reduced further.
• Environmentally friendly paint processes are subject to continuous development to reduce any possible hazardous residues to the minimum.
• Extraction systems are changed to produce less noise.
• Just-in-time delivery is employed to reduce internal transport.
• Minimising the processing of semi-finished products in the factory.
• Improved harmonisation of combination deliveries to prevent unnecessary kilometres being driven.

3) Energy measurement systems continually record consumption, so that we have ongoing insight into the amount of gas, water and electricity used. Using this insight, we can continually strive to reduce consumption.

4) The amount of aluminium used in Maars walls is limited. As you know, much more energy is used for the production of aluminium than for steel. Moreover, steel can be recycled much better than aluminium, so that at the end of the life of the product the environmental impact is less.

5) Machines are installed on liquid-tight floors that prevent leaks contaminating the soil in the event of an incident.

6) All returned material is sorted into type and collected by specialist companies for further processing.

7) The use of packaging has been drastically reduced due to the use of new techniques.

• For large projects, for instance the Martini hospital in Groningen, transport containers are used, which reduces the packaging to a minimum.
• Moreover, the protective edges can be recycled and, by means of a deposit system, are reused several times to reduce building waste.
• Pallets are returned and are reused.
• The material is supplied in such a way that it can be stacked, which allows the loading space in a lorry to be used efficiently.

8) Our new powder coating line meets higher standards than required by the current legislation. Maars uses powder coating instead of wet paint. Volatile substances are used to dilute wet paint, which is not the case for powder coating. In the powder coating department, the material is first degreased using hot soapy water. This water is filtered and reused. There are three cabins, two of which are designed so that the colour to be sprayed can be changed quickly. In the third cabin only a single colour is sprayed.
At the entrance to each cabin, electronic eyes are installed that ensure that powder is only sprayed if there is something to spray. This system takes account of the speed the racks move. Moreover, in all of the cabins, excess powder is extracted and reused. After the degreasing, drying, spraying and curing process the profiles, panels, etc. leave the powder coating department by means of a chain conveyor system.

9) Special trolleys are used for heavy material to prevent them having to be lifted.
Machines are supported by lifting equipment, so that the heavy material does not need to be moved by our employees.
Desks and chairs are adjusted to the personal needs of the employees, in consultation with an ergonomist.
Workpace has been installed on every computer and ensures that physical complaints due to computer use are prevented.
     
10) As a pioneer in the Dutch wall systems market, Maars focuses on the high quality of the supplied products. The major advantage of this is the longer life of our products.

• This also saves energy and limits the mountain of waste.
• Maars guarantees that all of the products that it delivers can be supplied for a period of at least ten years.
• This allows the existing products to be adapted to the new desired at any time.
• Moreover, increasingly more semi-finished products are being manufactured on the basis of recycling.