Ashok Leyland Unit Gets ISO 14001 certification

Hinduja Group's flagship Ashok Leyland's unit located at Ennore, Chennai, the largest amongst all its units in terms of size, has been awarded the coveted ISO 14001 certification for its environmental management system or EMS by the Indian Register Quality Systems or IRQS.

Commenting on the development Mr R Seshasayee, managing director, Ashok Leyland said, "It is true that ecology for long has been our R&D focus. In fact, developmental work on alternative fuel started way back in the 80s and today we are the world's largest manufacturers of CNG buses. Concurrently, through a constant review of manufacturing processes, we have been switching to eco-friendly processes. Yet we felt ecology deserves a more comprehensive, systematic and structured framework to carry out all environment-friendly initiatives. On this count, it was decided to establish an EMS first at the Ennore unit and subsequently at all manufacturing units".

Confederation of Indian Industry or CII's Environmental Management Division acted as facilitators to the 50 year old plant and helped the company by organising a series of preparatory activities including training and awareness programs, preparation and implementation of procedures and internal audits.

"The age of the plant made the road all the more daunting, but the dedication and perseverance of the EMS team coupled with the support from all our employees made it possible", said Mr JN Amrolia, executive director, human resources.

Meanwhile, not stopping with its own internal operations, Ashok Leyland is increasingly focusing on making its supply-chain also clean. Ashok Leyland has become one of a handful of Indian companies to initiate 'Greening the Supply Chain Mechanism', a project that helps its suppliers adopt EMS. This project is being jointly facilitated by the CII, Tetratech and Ashok Leyland itself.