First Dutch company to be NEN-EN 16001 certified

Van Houtum is the first company in the Netherlands to have been awarded the NEN-EN 16001 energy management system standard certification. The certificate was recently handed over to Managing Director Henk van Houtum and Energy Coordinator Ronald Kok by Wim Post of Lloyd’s Register Nederland and Bert Dijkstra, a consultant at NEN Energy Resources.

The energy management system used by Van Houtum is designed to achieve the targets set by the Dutch government to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions by 20% in 2020 relative to 2005. AgentschapNL is responsible for monitoring progress in relation to the Meerjarenafspraak Energie-efficiëntie ETS-ondernemingen covenant (a Dutch energy efficiency covenant, also commonly referred to as MEE) on behalf of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. This covenant defines long-term agreements on reducing CO2 emissions with major energy consumers in the private sector such as the paper industry.

Van Houtum has once again confirmed its leadership position in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility. “A good energy policy is a logical necessity”, says Ronald Kok. “The production and conversion process for toilet paper and paper hand towels requires large amounts of energy; consequently we have measured and logged the energy requirements of all our energy consumers for many years and improved efficiency wherever possible. Good for the environment and for our financial results.”

The Nederlands Normalisatie Instituut (NEN) in Delft strongly supports broad implementation of this new energy standard and is consequently delighted that the first Dutch company has already been audited against the NEN-EN 16001 energy management standard. “We have audited and certified all of Van Houtum's management systems for many years”, says Wim Post. “In addition to its ISO 9001 quality certification, Van Houtum also holds ISO 14001 environmental certification and OHSAS 18001 for Working Conditions. The company can now add NEN-EN 16001 for energy management to this impressive list. This is a logical step in our opinion and, as expected, Van Houtum came through with flying colours despite being the first company to be audited.”