Riopele maintained the Quality, Environment and Safety and Health at Work Certification

Riopele successfully completed the follow-up audit of the Integrated Quality, Environment and Safety and Health at Work Management System. The highlights of the audit were the strong investment in management processes and technological modernisation, the improvement in environmental performance, namely in the reduction/reuse of water consumption, and the continuous improvement of safety, both internally and externally.

Conducted between March 30 and April 4, 2022, the follow-up audit aimed to assess compliance with all requirements established by the reference standards, to confirm the effectiveness of the management system as a whole and its compliance with the requirements of the Quality (NP EN ISO 9001:2015), Environment (NP EN ISO 14001:2015) and Safety and Health at Work (NP ISO 45001:2019) Standards.

The audit was carried out in accordance with the plan. All integrated management system processes were audited, and the report found zero non-conformities.

The closing session was attended by the Board of Directors of Riopele, represented by Bernardino Carneiro, and the coordinator of the APCER audit team, Brandão Guerreiro, accompanied by the Director of the Quality, Environment and Safety department, Paulo Machado.

Bernardino Carneiro thanked the commitment and effort of all the teams involved and highlighted the competence and demand of the audit performed, as well as those responsible for the processes audited in the different areas of the company.

Riopele continues to follow an integrated QES management system that guarantees compliance with the applicable legal and regulatory requirements and with clear continuous improvement. The audit team mentioned the following as specific strengths of the company:

- Maintaining the activity without interruptions, despite the current emergency COVID-19 situation;
- Retaining reference customers;
- Maintaining the investment policy;
- Having an extensive training program planned for 2022;
- Continuous improvement in the application of the system;
- The culture of the company and its promotion of organisational knowledge;
- The investment in data analysis programmes and construction of Power BI dashboards and widespread computerisation for the monitoring and control of processes;
- The passion shown by people in charge when presenting their activities and KPIs;
- The joint work between the areas of Safety and Health at Work, Human Resources and Occupational Medicine, namely with regard to conditioned - Capable Workers, investigation of accidents and incidents and follow-up of complaints by workers about the job;
- The high commitment of the QES team;
- The high commitment and leadership shown by the company's Management;
- The well-organised and clean production areas;
- The "3D" IT project – new products application allowing the client to run a simulation;
- The high rate (53%) of wastewater reuse;
- Innovation in the creation of new products with registered patents;
- The OCS certification for production with biological fibres;
- The availability and expertise shown by all people contacted during the audit.

Having thus fulfilled the audit objectives, APCER considers that the company meets the conditions for maintaining the certification of the Integrated Quality, Environment, Safety and Health at Work Management System.

Finally, it should be noted that this audit was preceded by an internal audit, carried out by a team of external auditors, to assess the management system's compliance with regulatory requirements, applicable legislation, customers, and other interested parties. This audit showed that Riopele's management system is structured, aligned and implemented in accordance with the requirements of the standards, having also concluded that there are no non-conformities.