Business Briefs: Corporate responsibility, nuclear clean-up, and sea skimmers

At the Ethical Corporation Europe 2002 conference last week, companies such as Deutsche Bank, BASF, Anglo American and British American Tobacco, revealed their ideas on best practice in corporate responsibility. Deutsche Bank, for example, claims corporate citizenship as part of the company’s identity, with sustainability regarded as the new paradigm in values-based corporate management. BASF was also proud to announce that restructuring within the company has given it a Sustainability Council, a Sustainability Steering Committee, and a Sustainability Centre.

French nuclear fuel company, Cogema, has announced a technology transfer and technical assistance agreement with the China Institute for Radiation Protection that will cover nuclear clean-up technologies. Cogema has agreed to transfer specific nuclear decontamination technologies to the Institute, including gels, foams, electro-decontamination, and chemical decontamination – all currently used by the French nuclear industry.

Finally, German engineering company, Foilex, has announced that it has started the second phase of delivery of 20 Foilex TDS 200 Sea Skimmer Systems to the Japanese Maritime Disaster Prevention Center. Two have already been delivered to Okayama Prefecture, and further systems will be deployed at four more bases throughout Japan during this year. Each skimmer system includes a sea skimmer head, a powerpack and a remote control.