Certificates & footprint
Care for people, plants, planet and quality.
ISO 9001:2015 Certification
Our colleagues in China obtained the ISO 9001:2015 certificate in 2019. This ISO certification is aimed at quality control within a company. Of course, we want to continue to meet these requirements and that is why we do the following:
- Keep track of production processes;
- Keep the quality management system up-to-date;
- Quality management training for managers;
- Quality control of the product before, during and after production;
- Monthly inspection of devices and machines;
- Daily care for waste and reducing, separating and returning it.
This ensures:
- Happy employees in China and in Holland;
- Improvement in internal communication and reporting;
- A safe and healthy working environment;
- Increase in level of products and service;
- Reliable and accurate production planning and delivery;
- Continued quality standard through periodic evaluations;
- and therefore high-quality products.
ISO 14001:2015 Certification
We also are very proud to announce that our colleagues at NIF China have achieved to get the ISO 14001:2015 certificate in 2022! This indicates that they meet the international requirements for an environmental management system. The environmental policy that has been developed especially for the factory in China is properly implemented. In other words: good for people and environment!
AMFORI BSCI
By our colleagues in China, the Amfori BSCI label has been obtained. The BSCI label is not a certificate, but a membership that requires you to comply with an internationally recognized code of conduct.
BSCI’s 11 conditions:
- All workers have the right to form unions and bargain collectively.
- No discrimination at work when it comes to hiring, promotions, training, pension plans, etc.
- At least the legal minimum wage is paid. Workers are entitled to a living wage to be paid in a timely and complete manner.
- There are “normal” working hours, meaning no more than 48 hours per week, one day off every seven days, and no more than 12 hours of overtime. Overtime should not be too frequent and workers should receive higher pay for it.
- Clean and safe working conditions, which means corporal punishment, unusual punishment, sexual and other harassment by the employer is prohibited.
- No child labor, which means no children under 15 are employed, or under the minimum working age if it is higher than 15.
- Workers under 18 are not allowed to do dangerous work and must comply with compulsory education if there is one. They also do not work at night.
- There is secure employment, which means, among other things, a legally binding labor contract.
- There is no forced or prison labor.
- The environment is protected.
- There is an ethical way of working without corruption.
CO2– Compensation Certification
We compensate for our CO2 consumption by planting bamboo forests. Due to the growth of this bamboo, CO2 is absorbed. Together with Bamboo Village Uganda, a total of 584 m² of bamboo forest was planted in Uganda in 2020. Local entrepreneurs later use this bamboo to build, among other things, houses.
The choice for bamboo
Choosing bamboo is good for your plants and for the environment. Bamboo is also sometimes called the ‘green lungs of China’. This is because bamboo grows very fast, as much as 5 cm to 91 cm per day! Because bamboo is a fast-growing crop, we can harvest it after 3 to 6 years. This is better than wood, because it takes at least 20 years to mature. In the last five years, the total area of bamboo forests in China has only increased. There is therefore no question of ‘deforestation’ as with wood.
When there is no possibility to support plants with bamboo, we use other materials. However, we remain critical and try to use bamboo as much as possible.
Production methods.
In our production methods, we want to protect the environment as much as possible. For example, in our choice of paint. We have developed a paint machine that applies paint to plant sticks in an environmentally friendly way. This paint is water worn and provided with an anti-fungal agent. This allows us to paint split bamboo in any colour. In addition, we have recently started to use two wrapping machines. These machines make us use 57% less plastic waste than before!