Many Spectris products and technologies have positive environmental benefits by providing customers with the ability to reduce energy consumption or material wastage or to control emissions. Our curing lamps, for example, use ultraviolet light to cure or 'dry' environmentally-friendly inks and coatings, replacing conventional heat treatment of traditional materials which is energy-intensive and emits toxic solvent vapours. Our instrumentation helps wind farm operators to keep their turbines running by using remote predictive monitoring to detect and prevent faults. Our products can also help customers to meet environmental legislation. For example, we supply instrumentation which can measure low levels of materials such as lead and cadmium to meet legislation on the restriction of hazardous substances. We also supply systems which analyse the amount of sulphur in fuel to ensure compliance with regulations on the levels permitted. Further examples of the use of Spectris products having a direct beneficial contribution to the environment are shown on our website.

We are also committed to adopting environmentally responsible policies wherever our companies operate. We aim to reduce the environmental impact of our operations by developing products which are energy-efficient and avoid the use of harmful substances. Design processes take into account the operational lifetime of every product and end-of-life removal or disposal. Consideration is also given to environment-friendly production, packaging and shipping. Products have been developed which meet the new European regulations on the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). For example, printed circuit boards used in instrumentation sold to customers in this region no longer use lead-based solder in their manufacture.

All businesses are conscious of the need to conserve energy and resources and local initiatives are in place at many sites to reduce energy consumption and minimise wastage. These include recycling of items such as waste paper, cardboard, aluminium cans, batteries, toner cartridges and mobile phones, reducing energy consumption through the use of timers and sensors to control hot water, air conditioning and lighting, reducing water consumption and re-use of packaging and filling materials. The new technical centre for Servomex in Crowborough, England, which was opened in November 2008, has been designed and built to the latest environmental standards, including the use of heat exchangers to maximise heating efficiency and motion sensor lighting to reduce power wastage. At NDC's facility in the US, remote control units for the lighting system have been installed to enable the company to achieve energy and cost savings. At PANalytical in the Netherlands, despite a doubling of production volumes over the past ten years, the company's overall energy consumption has decreased by around 10%.

Spectris complies with the UK Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations which set targets for the recovery and recycling of packaging waste.

Our environmental policy is published on our website at www.spectris.com. The nature of our manufacturing activities means that Spectris' operations have very little impact on the environment, as our products do not require energy-intensive manufacturing processes and we endeavour to employ non-polluting technology wherever possible. Although we have four production facilities in the UK, their low power consumption means that the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced is not significant and hence Spectris is not required to participate in the second round of the European Emissions Trading Scheme, nor is it expected that the company will be included in the UK's Carbon Reduction Commitment plan.

Approximately half of Spectris' operations (by turnover) have received accreditation to the environmental standard ISO14001. Other companies are working towards accreditation where this is deemed beneficial for their customers.

During 2008 no significant environmental incidents were recorded.