As an ISO-14001 certified enterprise, we recognize that we have a responsibility to our community, our families, and our employees to ensure that we protect the environment. To guide our stewardship we developed our environmental policy statement –
“It is the goal of R.H. Sheppard Co., Inc. to achieve environmental excellence. As such we will strive to maintain compliance with environmental regulations, eliminate and/or reduce waste streams, and promote awareness to environmental issues. We are committed to continuously improving our manufacturing process to prevent/reduce their environmental impact for the benefit of our community. We will be committed to continuous evaluation and improvement of our environmental programs to ensure goals of environmental excellence are being maintained.”
Our Long-Standing Commitment
Over the years we have discovered that, in many cases, production costs can be reduced and production processes enhanced through tough, often self-imposed, environmental standards. In fact, our company was a leader in sustainable production and green manufacturing methods long before those words were commonly applied to industry.
For example, in 1986, we began recycling naphtha, lacquer thinner, and used machine oils. Today we recycle all of our coolants. This equates to more than 20,000 gallons of coolant per day. In fact, recycling has become an integral part of our quality program. The ability to control the quality of our coolants means better machining. The reduction in scrap parts due to recycling control pays off.
Over the past decade, we have concentrated our efforts on reducing the amount of solvent used throughout the facility by producing and utilizing water based parts washers. This effort has allowed us to decrease our solvent usage and resultant VOC emissions by 75%.
And finally, our Hanover, Pa water purification facility designed and built by R.H. Sheppard Co., Inc. satisfies all our water reprocessing needs. All of our process and parts washer wastewaters are treated in our wastewater facility, producing a high quality water which is re-introduced into our water utilizing processes. Oils which are extracted from the purification process are also reused on-site in waste oil boilers to generate energy for building and process heat. The facility currently processes from 20,000 to 30,000 gallons of wastewater per week. The wastewater facility not only has brought us to zero discharge for wastewater, but has also significantly reduced our water consumption.
Because of our environmental leadership, we have been recipients of the Pennsylvania Department of Protection’s Governor’s Waste Minimization Awards.
Perhaps most importantly, the company’s commitment to the environment, both inside our plants and outside our working area, has helped to provide a clean, hospitable place to work and a better community for our families. To us, good corporate citizenship includes caring for the world around us.