Milieukeur: added value for the environment, sustainability, the industry and business

Moyne Roberts is one of the major European manufacturers of fire protection equipment. The Irish company has its own brand, which includes (mobile) fire extinguishers, hose reels and fire blankets. Moyne Roberts’ products are sold worldwide. The company also offers maintenance of fire protection equipment through service companies in Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Belgium. The portable fire extinguishers of Moyne Roberts are awarded with Milieukeur. Brendan Morgan, Quality Assurance Manager at Moyne Roberts, tells us about the company’s sustainability ambitions and how Milieukeur contributes to achieve them.

Benefits for public procurement

Brendan elaborates on the importance of Milieukeur for the Dutch market: “Milieukeur is a good marketing tool for products. The main buyers of the portable fire extinguishers are mainly in the Netherlands. Having Milieukeur on our products is necessary in order to be able to sell them.” More specifically, Moyne Roberts sells products with Milieukeur mainly to government institutions in the Netherlands asking for the quality label: “Public bodies include these kinds of requirements within their tenders. To be considered for some tender processes, without Milieukeur, you would not be allowed to tender for the job. As such, having Milieukeur helps our company.” Brendan adds that Milieukeur is not only relevant for the Dutch market: “We use Milieukeur also in a broader sense, in the wider European community.”

Application process: easy enough, but strict requirements

Brendan explains that the application process of Milieukeur is very achievable: “It was a straightforward process. The testing of the products was already done for the European standards. A lot of information was required, but we had it already available within our own files. That information had to be collected and delivered. The biggest challenge of the certification process was bringing all the documentation together.” In addition to this, a recent challenge is meeting the revised requirements: “Because of stricter criteria for Milieukeur, such as requiring fluor free foam, it is difficult to find the right product and formula. Moyne Roberts is still working on this and we are testing products at the minute as well.”

Future sustainability ambitions

Moyne Roberts has the ambition to apply for Milieukeur for other products such as the mobile fire extinguishers in the future: “We want to get as environmentally friendly with our products as much as we possibly can. We want to improve our sustainability across the group, in all the companies in relation to the service provision and also our fire equipment product range. The main product range that we would be looking at are the portable and mobile fire extinguishers. Especially because people are seeing the effects on the environment and on themselves in their daily lives, we need to contribute to a better future and societal changes.”