Corporate responsibility and sustainability in the machine tool industry
Brussels, 23 October 2013 – The European Association of the Machine Tool Industries (CECIMO), along with the project coordinator Università Degli Studi di Macerata and partners CSR Europe, Central European Initiative (CEI), Istituto Ricerche Economiche e Sociali (IRES) and the University of Nottingham, launched this summer the European project DESIGN-MTS. The project aims at enabling -enterprises from the European machine tool sector to have a strategic approach to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and sustainability. The DESIGN-MTS project will identify best business practices in the field of CSR and sustainability, and disseminate them on a single platform towards the value chain.
The project has four focus areas: employability & skills, demographic change & active aging, workplace challenges, and environmental challenges. Integrating a strategic approach in these four areas into a company's core business is critical for the competitiveness of the sector.
“The machine tool industry, a key enabling technology provider, is a very strategic business sector from a CSR perspective, because it has a potential multiplying impact on several sectors of its supply chain” says Filip Geerts, Director General of CECIMO.
The project’s stakeholders are machine tool enterprises, enterprises along the supply chain (from the automotive, energy, med-tech, etc. industries), sector-based business associations, public authorities, civil society organisations and academia. The multi-stakeholder platform will allow an in-depth analysis of existing tools, initiatives and best practice cases in CSR and sustainability (skills, training, employability, public image, innovation, etc.) in the sector. The project will analyse not only company practices, but also initiatives at national and European levels launched by the national associations member of CECIMO. A review of the needs of machine tool enterprises and the challenges they face in the area of CSR and sustainability will also be carried out.
Stefan Crets, Executive Director at project partner CSR-Europe, comments: “DESIGN-MTS will focus on social and environmental challenges facing the machine tools industry. In addition, given the machine tool industry’s complex ties with other manufacturing sectors along the supply chain, the automotive industry for instance, the project will help increase the sustainability of supply chains in European manufacturing.”
It is expected that the project will help develop awareness of corporate responsibility and sustainability in the machine tool sector by increasing the visibility of initiatives and best practices of the sector and its supply chains at European, national and regional levels. “CECIMO and its member national associations are more than willing to take the lead in CSR and sustainability in Europe for the benefit of European machine tool companies and manufacturing,” adds Filip Geerts.
For further information on the project visit: www.csreurope.org/csr-machine-tool-sector
About DESIGN-MTS
The DESIGN-MTS project was initiated and partly funded by the European Commission (contract 333720) and is led by Università Degli Studi di Macerata in partnership with CSR Europe, CECIMO, Central European Initiative (CEI), Istituto Ricerche Economiche e Sociali (IRES) and the University of Nottingham. It was launched on 1st July 2013. For further information about the project, please contact the project manager at the University of Macerata, Barbara Chiucconi at Barbara.chiucconi@unimc.it.
About CECIMO
CECIMO is the European Association of the Machine Tool Industries. We bring together 15 national Associations of Machine Tool Builders, which represent approximately 1500 industrial enterprises in Europe*, over 80% of which are SMEs. CECIMO covers 98% of total Machine Tool production in Europe and about one third worldwide. It accounts for almost 150,000 employees and a turnover of nearly €22 billion in 2012. More than three quarters of CECIMO production is shipped abroad, whereas half of it is exported outside Europe*. For more information visit www.cecimo.eu
*Europe = EU + EFTA + Turkey
For further media enquiries:
Contact person:
Filip Geerts, Director General
Tel +32 2 502 70 90 / Fax +32 2 502 60 82
filip.geerts@cecimo.eu