Social Innovation

ARMOR applies the Responsible Care® charter, an initiative by chemicals companies to improve health, environmental performance, safety, and relations with stakeholders

ARMOR University was founded in France in 2011 to provide employees with the opportunity to have their professional experience officially recognized while improving their skills. As such, the courses are recognized by the French govern­ment. This approach’s innovative nature and participatory dimension make ARMOR University a substantive venture from a social standpoint. Since the university was established, its record has been hugely positive, with a 98% pass rate, 260 people receiving certificates, representing 83% of oper­ator personnel.

ARMOR-IIMAK is developing a new generation of ribbons produced on a 4µ PET base film. This represents up to a 12% plastic reduction for each roll. For an application using 6,000 ribbons per year with a standard roll configuration (110mm x 300m), switching to 4µ-based ribbons = 100 kg of plastic saved, which corresponds to more than 3000 plastic bottles. Today, thinner PET Thermal Transfer ribbons available in the ARMOR range are APR1 and AXR TX.

In 2020, three subsidiaries celebrated 1,000 days without a workplace accident in Brazil and Mexico, while India celebrated the milestone of 1,500 days. These figures are the fruit of efforts by teams to accustom all employees to health and safety issues.

Recognized for its sustainable development strategy in 2017 and 2019, ARMOR Asia received a further award at the 2020 Singapore Apex Corporate Sustainability Awards: one of the most prestigious sustainable development awards in Asia. It recognizes the excellence of the company’s commercial activities and solutions that satisfy the 10 principles of the Global Compact. ARMOR Asia demonstrates the group’s ambitions to implement its CSR policy in every subsidiary.

ARMOR introduced REC’PET programs in the compa­ny and REC’PET Partner programs for end-users. This initiative provides a solution to recover and re­cycle PET film waste which generally goes to landfill or are inciner­ated. They are collect­ed and then converted into Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF). SRF has stable energy properties and is used to alternative conventional fossil fuels, such as coal or oil.

As a signatory of the Responsible Supplier Rela­tions Charter, since 2011, ARMOR has been committed to long-term, balanced relationships with its suppliers, which underlines ARMOR’s proactive stance on responsible purchasing. The char­ter has since adopted ISO 20400 requirements on Responsible Purchasing, and ARMOR renews its commitment to it on an annual basis.

This is a government initiative designed to reduce the socio-economic disparities among the different communities in South Africa. ARMOR South Africa is proud to hold the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment certificate at three levels, notably by enhancing the skills of junior management and employing operators as team leaders.

Solvents are a key component used in the Thermal Transfer ribbon manufacturing process. After the evaporation stage, solvents are collected and treated through two Regenerative Thermal Oxidizers (RTO) to produce thermal energy for the factory enabling reduction of gas and electricity consumption. 91% of production solvents recovered into factory energy. Over the last five years, ARMOR has also reduced the quantity of solvent for each square meter of TT film produced by 15%.