Carfil Quality supports the life science sector

CSR Carfil Quality

Carfil Quality considers it important to contribute to a sustainable society and is therefore also involved in Corporate Social Responsibility.

Corporate Social Responsibility also means that we communicate transparently about the various sustainability themes. We have chosen to report according to the 17 SDGs.

Working at Carfil Quality

At Carfil we believe it is important that everyone in society has the opportunity to contribute. We therefore have partnerships with tailor-made companies such as Bewel and De Troef, schools for special education and penal institutions. In this way we create opportunities for people with a distance (limitation) from the labor market. They take care of the repetitive tasks that can be done remotely or on site in our warehouse.

In the warehouse, safety comes first and extra attention is paid to this. Additional shelves have been placed in the racks, the products and pallets are indicated with large clear labels and everything has a fixed place. For example, the warehouse is also adapted to work for employees with a limitation to the labor market. In addition, there are extra sanitary facilities for the truck drivers who come to load and unload.

We offer a safe, pleasant and adapted working environment for our employees: coffee, tea and soft drinks are available free of charge, the commercial vehicles are equipped with a hands-free calling kit and there are ergonomic workstations in the office and in the warehouse that take good and comfortable light distribution through adapted lighting fixtures. The importance of the work-life balance is recognized and the work regime is in consultation with the needs and wishes of the employees. There is no discrimination regardless of origin, sexual orientation, race or religion and there is equality between men, women and gender neutrals.

Carfil stands for growth and opportunities. As a company, we want to continue to grow and acquire knowledge by following training courses and participating in exchanges of experience. We create learning opportunities by providing internships and employment for student workers during the holidays. Young people with good ideas get plenty of opportunities with us.

Local business

We prefer to work with local suppliers, 95% are Belgian or from one of the neighboring countries. For example, there is a shorter supply chain with shorter journeys, which reduces our carbon footprint. Communication is smoother and faster. We can work under unambiguous European regulations and are not bothered by, for example, Brexit regulations. We have no suppliers or significant trading partners in countries with which there is significant inequality, so we have no impact or opportunity to reduce that inequality.

We also offer opportunities to young, local entrepreneurs, such as to design and build a special machine for making cage enrichment.

Carfil is a member of the Bentel, VOKA, UNIZO, BCLAS and GV SOLAS working group for knowledge sharing, the organization of the business park and involvement in trade unions.

It was therefore a conscious choice to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the company in 2020 by supporting scientific research instead of organizing celebrations. The University of Liège and the virological institute of Berlin received a nice contribution in kind to their Covid-19 research.

Carfil Quality stands for quality

As our name suggests, quality is of paramount importance to us. Our products undergo strict quality controls to meet all of our customers' requirements. The storage area is periodically subjected to rodent controls, pest control and fumigation, the spread of a gas that kills the insects at all stages of their life cycle. We apply the FIFO principle to avoid long-term storage of products. There is a quarantine area where the goods are unloaded before they enter the storage area. Non-compliant goods are stored separately. All laws and regulations, such as those of the FASFC, are strictly observed. That is why we only work with partners who have quality assurance systems and who comply with strict laws and regulations.

To deliver the products to the customer in the best possible condition, a lot of time is spent on solid packaging materials and safe transport. The packaging material all comes from Belgian producers.

Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty are very important to us, given the specific segment of our sales market. Customers are regularly surveyed to further improve our service. Our customers' testimonials are also used in our external communication.

Carfil Quality and the environment

Unfortunately, we also cannot escape the use of plastic, because in order to meet the high quality and hygiene requirements that are set for our products, we are forced to use plastic packaging films and plastic bags. We realize that this can have a negative impact on life in the oceans if not properly collected and recycled. These are neatly sorted in our storage room and then taken to recycling centers. The residues and waste stream from the cage enrichment machine is used as filler material when sending packages.

The rainwater that we collect is only used for flushing the toilets, which are equipped with energy saving buttons, as this may not be used for cleaning according to the legislation of FAVV. We save energy by using LED lighting in our office. The planned purchase of solar panels will ensure complete self-sufficiency of electricity.

We try to limit our CO? emissions as much as possible by working with local partners and by choosing transport companies who make the necessary efforts to rejuvenate their fleet. Our deliveries to customers are centralized per region in order to optimally load the loads and thus only drive with full loads.

One-way pallets are used as little as possible. We have our own stock of reusable, plastic pallets that are used in an exchange system with our customers and therefore return to us again and again for reuse. In fact, only these plastic pallets are used for a large number of our products. These are periodically cleaned and disinfected by a specialized company. The wooden pallets that are used are also reusable.

In our storage space, electrical equipment is used as much as possible. The forklifts and pallet trucks are electric and there is also an electric bicycle that can be used for local travel.

Our other company www.lifescienceequipment.be is a good example that a circular economy is also possible in the Life Science sector. We founded this website to bring refurbished, used and unused material back on the market

In the business park where Carfil is located, we have a joint initiative of the entrepreneurs, namely the sowing of flower meadows and the installation of a bee hotel in collaboration with a local beekeeper. Every year schools are invited for an educational visit on the day of the bee.