At the award ceremony held on Wednesday, January 23rd, at the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Ljubljana, Gorenje, as a nominee for the 'Ecology-Oriented Company 2007' received a special award of gratitude for its efforts in the field of personal and spiritual growth, healthy lifestyle, ecology, social care, and endeavors for a better world in 2007. The award was presented following a vote from the readers of the website 'pozitivke.net', 'svet-je-lep.net', and the readers of magazines 'Karma' and 'Viva'. As a part of the ceremony, the nominees were also engaged in a round table titled Trends and Guidelines of Sound Practice for the Year 2008. Gorenje was nominated for its clear and concise vision of environment protection and management, and for the refrigerator with the lowest power consumption in its category in the EU.
In Gorenje, protection of the environment is at the heart of short-term and long-term policies and goals; it is also an important part of Gorenje's corporate culture. Tradition of environment protection dates as far as 40 years back, when the company built its first waste water treatment plant. 1998 was a major watershed as the strategic plan of the Gorenje Group, adopted that year, also included environment protection among the priorities of the Group's operations. Hence, Gorenje was awarded the ISO 14001 standard for environment protection as early as ten years ago; furthermore, company operations were adjusted to meet the requirements of the EMAS regulation in 2003. Today, Gorenje sees environment protection not only as an obligation, commitment, and self-evident responsibility, but also as a source of numerous new business opportunities.
In the field of environment protection, Gorenje is in the apex of European industry, both with regard to appliance development and management of technological procedures. One proof thereof is the Advance Project survey conducted by a group of independent research institutes from several European countries, which ranks Gorenje as third in Europe by efficient environment protection management. The results have shown that Gorenje's approach to sustainable development of environment protection was among the most efficient in the segment of environment protection, social aspects, and management economics.
Gorenje invests between EUR 40 and 50 million annually into updating its technology and developing new products. In all segments of its operations and investments related to environment protection, the investments are deliberately planned to exceed the legal requirements. In addition to design and functionality, one crucial aspect of developing new products is compliance with the requirements of ecological design which takes into account the entire life cycle of a product, from development, manufacturing, operation, to disposal. Furthermore, energy efficiency is one of the key strategic goals when developing new technical solutions, both for products and manufacturing processes. All new products are developed in a way that makes them environment-friendly, as they are made using environment-friendly technological procedures and materials, and as they consume less power, water, and detergent. These appliances rank among the most cost-efficient household appliances in the market. They reach and exceed the highest energy classes required by European standards. The noise that they emit during operation is minimal.
In 2007, the German Institute of Applied Ecology Öko-Institut E.V. from Freiburg, ranked Gorenje's refrigerator RB 4139W on the first place on its scale of ten best appliances according to the EcoTopTen initiative. With total annual cost of no more than EUR 51, the said appliance is the most cost-efficient among the best appliances offered in the market of refrigerators up to height 88 cm. The EcoTopTen list only features appliances that meet the criteria of A++ energy efficiency class, which means up to 45 percent of savings in power consumption. With this recommendation, Gorenje met the most stringent criteria of the EcoTopTen initiative in the field of household appliances for the third time. Upon this foundation – clear vision of environment management and the most cost-efficient refrigerator in Europe in its category – Gorenje was nominated for the award of Ecology-Oriented Company 2007.