General Fasteners Company adheres to our Environmental Policy, strives to improve our environmental performance, and supports initiatives that further reduce harmful impacts on the environment.

We are committed to:

• Prevent, reduce, or mitigate harmful effects the business may have on the environment in a manner appropriate to the scale of its activities and services.
• Provide the resources necessary to sustain and continuously improve our commitment to prevent pollution, reduce or mitigate negative or harmful effects on the environment.
• Comply with all applicable legal requirements and others to which it subscribes as related to its environmental aspects.
• Recover or reuse expendable material through recycling initiatives.
• Pursue continuous improvement in environmental performance by setting and reviewing objectives and targets.

As part of our ongoing commitment to being a responsible corporate partner and neighbor, General Fasteners Company is committed to preventing the sourcing of certain minerals, referred to as “Conflict Minerals” mined in the region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, from being incorporated into our products.

GFC does not purchase raw ore or virgin metals. All materials purchased by GFC are either finished products or processed materials that have been processed, in most cases, through multiple tiers of the global supply chain.

Although GFC is not directly subject to the SEC Conflict Minerals disclosure requirement in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, GFC will continue to use all reasonable efforts to work with our suppliers to ensure that materials used in our products are free of Conflict Minerals. If we become aware of any such materials used in one of our products, we will work with the affected supplier and customer to respond appropriately.

Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS), addresses the global issue of consumer electronics waste generated by hazardous materials. Hazardous materials traditionally associated with fasteners includes Lead, Mercury, Cadmium, Hexavalent Chromium, Polybrominated Biphenyls, and Polybrominated Diphenyl Ether. General Fasteners Company proudly offers its customers with RoHS compliant alternatives to these hazardous substances.

General Fasteners Company is a REACH compliant supplier. REACH stands for Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals. Manufacturers, importers and also their customers are required to communicate information on chemicals throughout the supply chain to be aware of information relating to the health and safety of the products supplied. This can include materials, solvents, paints and chemicals.

Over the past few years, the awareness and sensitivity to issues related to sustainable energy, environmental impact, and other “green” topics has grown substantially. In an effort to be more socially responsible, and in anticipation of future regulation, General Fasteners Company has committed to driving environmental sustainability initiatives down through our supply base.

CDP (formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project), has pioneered a global disclosure system where thousands of companies and hundreds of cities and countries report their impacts on the environment and natural resources to stakeholders and investors. CDP holds the largest collection globally of self-reported climate change, water, and forest-risk data. The goal is to drive action by companies and cities globally to reduce greenhouse emissions, safeguard water resources, and to prevent the destruction of forests. It aims to increase corporate transparency on environmental impact and performance, make environmental performance central to investment and business decisions, assist cities to reduce their climate impacts, and support effective policy and regulation to protect the environment. Further, the platform supports multinational purchasers to build more sustainable supply chains.

General Fasteners Company became a CDP participant in 2011 and we have asked our partners to join us. We added this topic to our supplier audits and supplier scorecard reviews.