Energy consumption has the largest environmental footprint at Georg Fischer. The objective therefore is to minimise the consumption of energy by streamlining production processes, with the ultimate aim of increasing energy efficiency. One important way of doing so is to increase the use of waste heat from metal and plastics processing. Throughout the Corporation, waste management is efficient and both economically and environmentally viable. As well as generally reducing the amount of waste, Georg Fischer also tries, and manages, to ensure that material flows contain materials of only one type, as this makes recycling easier. The main materials used by Georg Fischer – metals and high-quality plastics – are easy to recycle. In this way, modern materials management protects the environment and saves raw materials. All the Corporation's production companies (interest of over 50 percent) are certified to ISO 14001. An environmental management system is developed within three years at all newly founded or acquired companies. Regular external audits ensure a high standard. Since 1997, GF has been collecting environmentally relevant data from the production companies in its Sustainability Information System (SIS).