Philips Lightings' triphosphor tube, ALTO (tm), has helped Philips International to win a gold award from the World Environment Centre in New York.
The Philips ALTO fluorescent tube contains 70% less mercury than standard halophosphor tubes. To show just how friendly these tubes are for the environment, they have green end caps. These allow for product differentiation at the time of purchase and identification at the end of lamp life. This product, along with the Philips Green TV project, the "Coolrunner" logic IC and the Powerlife battery contributed towards Philips winning the gold award.
Philips joins company's such as 3M, IBM, Proctor and Gamble, Xerox, Alcoa and Compaq who have won the annual gold award for their commitment to developing products that are friendly to the environment. This award is decided by an independent jury.
"The environment is an integral part of our company policy. Producing efficiently and making products which are environmentally sound has added value for our customers. Our environmental action program has turned the environment into a real business issue", said Philips president, Mr Cor Boonstra.
Philips' global environmental policy has three key targets to be reached by 2000: reduce the energy needed for production by 25 percent; reduce packaging by 15 percent; and achieve ISO 14001 certification at all production plants to control the environmental impact of sites and reduce materials and energy costs.
Philips' plants in the Netherlands were the first to reach the corporate energy reduction targets while worldwide, 72 manufacturing sites have also been awarded ISO 14001 status for their environmental management systems.