Gorenje, the leading Slovenian white goods manufacturer, has been declared the winner of this year’s Environmentally Friendly Company contest at an event organized by Finance daily newspaper and the Eko Fund, the latter focused on providing subsidies and loans for environmentally friendly investments. Gorenje won the award for its development strategy efforts, which include its green products as well as systematic reduction of energy and water consumption and waste reduction in its manufacturing processes.
However, as noted in an op-ed in Delo newspaper yesterday, the award might not have been chosen wisely, given that Kemis, a Gorenje subsidiary, caused what some might refer to as an ecological catastrophe near Vrhnika this spring, when one of the company’s dangerous waste management facilities caught fire. Water sample analysis confirmed that the banned herbicide Atrazine has been released into the environment due to this incident, among other toxic chemicals.
A bad day in Vrhnika
Gorenje, which has a strong brand image in the domestic market and abroad, publicly distanced itself from the Vrhnika disaster, quoting principles of corporate governance which prevents it from interfering with the operational governance of Kemis.
Gorenje is one of the eight largest manufacturers of home appliances in Europe, and has earned several awards in various fields of excellence, including those for environmental achievements in Hungary and Serbia, and it was also the first Slovenian company to be entered in the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme register.
