HARTING is the first company to be certified for social responsibility

Now the company's management system for the awareness and assumption of societal responsibility has been certified by DQS - a project that is unique in Germany to date.

It is a great honor for us, as the first German company, to receive the certification on the awareness of our societal responsibility from DQS. We made a very conscious decision to take this step, as we would like to set a standard with regard to how companies and organizations can provide information on their societal responsibility. We regard auditing by an independent third party as an appropriate approach. I would like to thank Michael Drechsel, the Managing Director of DQS, that were have been able to jointly initiate and successfully implement this project, as Dietmar Harting, President and personally liable partner of the HARTING Technology Group summed up the significance of the certificate for his company on the occasion of the award ceremony.

Michael Drechsel, DQS managing director, commented on the commitment of the Technology Group as follows: Once again, HARTING has taken the lead. The certification represents a key step in the direction of higher transparency with regard to the awareness of societal responsibility in German companies. I am certain that other companies will follow in the near future.

In obtaining the certification on societal responsibility HARTING is primarily concerned with taking account of increasing customer demands for ethically correct behavior in the supply and value creation chain in the best possible manner. In view of the multitude of individual customer behaviorcodices and the high time and cost input required for the specific individual implementation, HARTING regards the certification as an active step towards further improving customer care and focus.

In assuming societal responsibility the HARTING Technology Group orients its position to ISO 26000. This international standard has been drawn up as a set of guidelines and is not certifiable. Consequently, DQS examined and inspected conformity with the core topics of ISO 26000 and issued the certification according to the Austrian ONR 192500 regulations, as well as the Spanish RS 10 specification, as both have implemented the contents and core topics of ISO 26000 as a certifiable management system.

At HARTING the commitment to responsible thinking and acting extends far beyond purely economical standpoints and integrates the needs of individual employees. In the assembly area, for example, workplaces are geared to employee requirements by way of cardboard engineering. The prototype of a workplace is modeled with cardboard box elements and improved until it is fully compatible with the natural flow of employee movements and the qualitative demands of the respective processes. Additional in-house measures such as HARTING's idea management or the awarding of successful improvement processes within the context of the HARTING Learning and Improvement Systems (HARlis) augment and expand the course of continuous improvement.

Moreover, environmental and climate protection have been integrated as well defined elements of every day company activities at the HARTING Technology Group since 1996. Improving energy efficiency and environmentally friendly business and manufacturing practices are part and parcel of the company's philosophy. HARTING recently received the official acknowledgement as Climate Protection Company by the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (Deutsche Industrie- und Handelskammertag (DIHK) that bestowed the award in connection with the partnership for climate protection, energy efficiency and innovation involving the Federal Environment Ministry, its climate protection initiative as well as the Federal Ministry of Economics.

With this project, both partners, HARTING and DQS, have entered new territory and taken an initial step in the direction of better transparency among all partners in terms of societal responsibility. Both partners are aware of the fact that this is the beginning of a long road. Like every other process, establishing socially responsible ways of acting successfully will only be possible through continuous improvement. Consequently, DQS will once again be a guest at HARTING in 2012 in order to audit the developments and progress at the HARTING Technology Group.