Schaffhausen, January 5, 2009

GF Internet site ranked no. 1

The industrial company Georg Fischer has the best online corporate communication in Switzerland. This emerged from a study by the Swedish consultancy Hallvarsson & Halvarsson conducted together with the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung. The study assessed the Internet sites of Switzerland's 53 largest quoted companies. Since the 140 criteria evaluated reflect mainly the viewpoint of financial market players, the quality of financial information forms the core of the analysis. However, other factors such as information on sustainability or career, interactivity and the use of video and audio also play a role. This Internet analysis was conducted for the fifth time in Switzerland in 2008 and for the twelfth time at the European level. GF finished sixth the previous year.

Neue Zürcher Zeitung, December 30, 2008 (German only) (PDF) (151 KB)

Schaffhausen, November 7, 2008

Award-winning GLOBE

At the Grand Prix 2008 of the Federation of European business communicators associations or FEIEA, Georg Fischer won two awards. In the category "Best multilanguage publication", GLOBE, the employee newspaper of the Schaffhausen-based industrial company, carried off first prize. In the competition for the best in-house newspaper, GLOBE came in second place. The criteria assessed were content, language, credibility and dialogue orientation. The Georg Fischer corporate employee newspaper appears four times a year in five languages, and the print run of 14,000 copies is distributed in 30 countries. At this year's FEIEA Grand Prix, prizes were awarded in ten different categories. In a preliminary round, 800 publications were first judged at the national level. 200 publications then entered the semi-finals and finals, where they were judged by an international jury.

Schaffhausen, November 7, 2008

GF 2007 Annual Report wins twice

The Georg Fischer (GF) Annual Report 2007 won first prize in the category "Value Reporting" in a rating produced by the Swiss business newspaper Bilanz. Conducted by the Swiss banking institute, 35 different business criteria were examined. Some of the key elements studied were background information on the company such as explanations about products, markets and strategy, along with non-financial information. The jury analysed a total of 130 annual reports issued by Switzerland's largest corporations. According to jury chairman Rudolf Volkart, "The GF Annual Report stands out for its compact and highly informative presentation."

In another analysis published by the Northwest Switzerland University of Applied Sciences, "Switzerland's Best Annual Reports", the GF report came in second, winning 90 percent of all possible points. This study examined the annual reports of the 250 largest Swiss corporations plus those of some smaller firms. The analysis focuses on social and ecological aspects of management as well as on financial data and follows the international sustainability standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).

Singen, August 2008

GF heats up Maggi

GF Automotive in Singen, Germany, is cooperating with Nestlé, the food company, in a project to use waste heat. Heat generated in the foundry’s iron smelter is tapped into by means of a thermal oil system. In the past, only part of the energy was captured for heating mains water. A new concept is being designed to use the waste heat in the plants of the nearby food company for the manufacture of products for Maggi, best known for its soups. The system is expected to reduce CO2 by more than 11,000 tonnes per annum. Germany’s Ministry of the Environment has therefore contributed 700,000 euros to the project from its environmental innovation programme. The first energy deliveries will take place this year.

Dautphetal-Mornshausen, August 2008

Award for GF DEKA

Georg Fischer DEKA has won the Supplier Award given by Airbus, the commercial aircraft company. The GF Piping Systems subsidiary from Dautphetal-Mornshausen, Germany, won perfect marks in the decisive criteria “Complaint rate” and “Delivery reliability” and was voted the second-best supplier in 2007. Points were awarded for good technical cooperation along with rapid implementation and short response times. DEKA has been supplying Airbus with pipe components made of special polymer plastics since 1996. They are built into the ventilation and air conditioning systems in the Airbus cabins, which are produced in Laupheim, Germany. The know-how from GF is being used in the new Super Airbus A380 as well as in the older A300 and A340 models.

Schaffhausen, August 2008

Clean Water on tour

“Five Years Clean Water” is a travelling exhibit that has begun doing the rounds of Georg Fischer. By means of informative panels and two special drops of water, GF wants to inform its employees about its commitment to improving people’s access to clean drinking water. The first stop was Schaffhausen, where the exhibit was shown at GF Piping Systems, in the Corporation’s Head Office and at the shareholders’ annual meeting. The exhibit next travelled to a trade fair in Italy and subsequently to Seewis, Singen and Mettmann. It will stop in Epe, Netherlands, Schorndorf, Germany, and Geneva, Switzerland.

Schaffhausen, July 24, 2008

Clean Water project receives award from Kofi Annan

Helvetas, the Swiss Association for International Cooperation, recently received the ENERGY GLOBE AWARD from former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in the European Parliament. The Award is worth 10,000 euros and is presented in five categories – Earth, Fire, Water, Air and Youth. The jury, headed by Indian politician Maneka Gandhi, chose Helvetas’ drinking water scheme from among 853 projects.

By working with the local population to construct and repair village wells in Mozambique, Helvetas is contributing to improving hygiene standards. To date Helvetas has been able to help over a million people obtain access to clean drinking water. By having local construction companies build the drinking water installations, Helvetas is also helping to promote private industry.

Georg Fischer has supported this long-established and outstanding example of development cooperation on two occasions since 2002 by making substantial contributions through its Clean Water Foundation. Also Yves Serra, CEO of Georg Fischer, is pleased: "We are delighted that Helvetas' efforts have received such recognition. Helvetas has been one of Clean Water’s partners right from the outset and consistently does excellent work on our behalf."

Dujiangyan, July 2008

Solidarity with China

GF staff were among those affected by the recent earthquake in China. GF has a production site in the town of Dujiangyan, which is located near the quake's epicentre. The Corporation and individual colleagues made donations for the reconstruction. The management of Chinaust, the joint venture of GF Piping Systems and the Lingyun Group, for instance, contributed emergency assistance of 100,000 renminbi (almost 15,000 Swiss francs) two days after the earthquake. The Georg Fischer Corporation made 52,000 Swiss francs available, and local GF companies launched appeals for donations, collecting over RMB 400,000, or more than 60,000 Swiss francs. Although the staff of Chinaust had to rely on outside help, they threw themselves into the reconstruction efforts with a will: just a week after the quake, they were supplying their customers with fittings and piping for repairs to water and gas distribution systems.

Schaffhausen, June 17, 2008

Georg Fischer publishes its 2007 Sustainability Report

The third Sustainability Report of Georg Fischer has just been published. It contains detailed and clearly presented information about the Corporation’s sustainable behaviour and the responsibility it takes for environmental protection, its employees and society at large. The Report for 2007 contains key ecological and social responsibility figures. It supplements the Annual Report and is available either in printed form or as an interactive version in the Internet.

Mettmann, May 26, 2008

Energy from waste gases

The Mettmann plant of GF Automotive near Düsseldorf is home to one of the most modern iron foundries in Europe. And the site is state-of-the-art too when it comes to environmental protection and saving energy. The best example is a recently installed recuperator, which uses a waste heat recovery system to deliver CO2 savings of several thousand tonnes per year. The heat exchanger converts the heat generated during the smelting process in the cupola furnace into usable energy. After almost two decades in operation, the old recuperator was replaced in December 2007 by a modern model. In view of rising energy prices, the new design puts great emphasis on energy-efficiency. Success was not long in coming. The plant was soon able to report a saving of 85,000 cubic metres of gas a month, which is equivalent to reducing the use of carbon dioxide by 195 tonnes a month. That means a saving of about 2,300 tonnes a year. The equipment is being further optimised at present.

Schaffhausen, May 15, 2008

GF at university

From 2008 onwards, the Corporation will be expanding its training programme for existing managers and new talent and bringing the courses together under one roof at the newly installed GF Academy. The aim is to enhance skills, prepare participants for future roles, ensure internal succession arrangements and retain talented employees. The courses cover financial management as well as business administration and management. The training content is extremely practical and specifically tailored to GF.

Schaffhausen, February 20, 2008

Fewer heavy metals in use

With their drastically reduced heavymetal content, the new generation of MSA Plus electrowelding machines from GF Piping Systems now meet the standards of the EU’s “Directive on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment”, or ROHS for short. The aim of ROHS is to minimise the use of hazardous substances such as cadmium or mercury in electrical equipment. What this means in practice for the machines made by GF is that engineers use only lead-free solder.

Schaffhausen, December 7, 2007

Occupational Safety: OHSAS pilot projects

The enterprises running pilot projects to achieve occupational safety and health management certification at the Georg Fischer Corporation are making good progress. The OHSAS 18001 (Occupational Health and Safety Management System) has been a focus of attention for GF’s facilities in Seewis (for GF Piping Systems), Nidau (for GF AgieCharmilles) and Leipzig (for GF Automotive) since the beginning of 2007. As pilot enterprises, these sites are testing whether this internationally established occupational health and safety management system would be suitable for application Corporation-wide. Based on their experiences, the Executive Committee is set to make a final decision on this matter before the end of the year. “It was less of an undertaking than we had feared it might be,” says Judith Stocker, the sustainability manager monitoring the implementation of OHSAS in the pilot enterprises. And the reason? “All the sites already have high standards in this area, employ safety experts and are already ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified. None of them were starting from scratch.” Nidau has already received its certification. Here, management took advantage of a surveillance audit to confer with the auditors on what measures still needed to be taken. “But we already had very good foundations in place,” says Stocker—good enough, in fact, that certification was awarded in November. The Leipzig facility will receive its certification in the second quarter of 2008. GF Piping Systems in Seewis, in collaboration with SUVA, the Swiss National Accident Insurance Fund, has drawn up a two-year project aimed at creating an integrated safety framework. This fits in perfectly with the plans to implement OHSAS, as this project provides an excellent starting point on which to build.

Altenmarkt, November 2007

New air treatment system

A new air treatment system ensures clean air in the magnesium foundry at Altenmarkt, Austria. The new system draws around 180,000 cubic metres of polluted factory air per hour into ducts and up to the ceiling before blowing it out into the outside world up to 99% filtered. At the same time, a supply-air module sends out up to 110,000 cubic metres of fresh air directly to the workplaces. The energy and environmental footprint is also right: up to 70% of the thermal energy from the casting machines is reclaimed for the production area via the air treatment system's heat exchanger unit.

Schaffhausen, September 5, 2007

GF prepared for pandemic

In 2006, GF prepared an emergency plan to protect its employees in the event of a worldwide avian flu pandemic. The plan included a number of measures that are to be implemented by the local companies themselves. In order to assess the threat realistically, the planning task force is using the alert phases defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Every corporate subsidiary has set up a crisis team. Moreover, the corporate subsidiaries are informed every three months by the Corporation about the latest developments in the pandemic field and they are in contact with the relevant health authorities should a flu pandemic break out. GF employees have the opportunity of participating in a vaccination programme to protect them against the flu. Employees are also kept informed regularly, through internal media, about protective measures.

Schaffhausen, June 28, 2007

Georg Fischer: ranked top

The Swiss Business journal "Bilanz" gave Georg Fischer top rankings in two categories. It rated GF a Switzerland's number one in Corporate Governance and put the company in second place as a communicator. In both categories, "Bilanz" together with specialists from the respective sectors examined Switzerland's top 100 companies.