Our compliance

In order to ensure the fulfilment of minimum environmental requirements set for the water companies, we are required to comply with the legislative acts issued by EU and the state, as well as by the local governments. On the EU level, this means above all the compliance with the Water Framework Directive No 2000/60/EC of EU Council. On the national level, the Company is required to comply with the Water Act, Public Water Supply and Sewerage Act, Waste Act, Chemicals Act, Ambient Air Protection Act and any regulations adopted on the basis thereof. On the local level, the Company has to abide by various guidelines and regulations established by the local government in Tallinn and neighbouring municipalities.

We strive to do more than we are expected by the legislative and contractual requirements. To do that we focus on dialogue and cooperation, both within our team and with various partners. Changes in applicable legislation are constantly monitored and communicated to the relevant managers, whom those changes concern. On the other hand, we also value preventive cooperation and actively participate in the development and amending of legal acts primarily via the Estonian Waterworks Association. We also cooperate with several quality-conscious and environmentally aware companies to promote doing business in an ethical and responsible way. For example, we are a member of the Estonian Association for Quality since 2002, a member of the Estonian Association for Environmental Management since 2003 and one of the founders of the Responsible Business Forum.

We are the most regulated water company in Estonia. To ensure the best quality of service for our customers, in addition to the legislative requirements, we are contractually required to comply with 97 levels of service. This responsibility stems from a tripartite Services Agreement we concluded with the City of Tallinn in 2001. An independent monitoring unit - the Supervisory Foundation for the Water Companies in Tallinn – to whom we submit annual Levels of Service reports, reviews our performance and the levels of service annually.

In 2014, we complied with and in many cases outperformed all the contractual levels of service, except for one non-compliance under the service level WS7A, which was an interruption to water supply that lasted longer than 12 hours, due to the fact that the repair works had to be stopped for some time, in order to ensure the safety of employees because of a tree that threatened to fall. In many levels of service, the best result of all times was achieved.

Besides the 97 levels of service, we are contractually required to comply with the following management systems:

  • Since 2001, ISO 17025 Quality Management System of Laboratories;
  • Since 2002, ISO 9001 Quality Management System;
  • Since 2003, ISO 14001 Environmental Management System.

Doing business in an environmentally safe way, as well as the safety of our employees are extremely important to us, so we have voluntarily complied with the following systems:

  • Since 2005, EU EMAS the European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme;
  • Since 2007, OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and Safety Management System.

In 2014, the activity of the company (including its subsidiary OÜ Watercom) and its management system have fully complied with all applicable quality, environmental, occupational safety and work environment standards and systems, as well as legal requirements. Such compliance is regularly monitored via internal audits and has been confirmed by way of an external audit undertaken by Det Norske Veritas on the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme EMAS, established by the European Union. During the 2014 audit, the auditors made several positive observations, the most important of which is the observation made on the high level of meeting the objectives, especially considering that for several objectives it was the best result of all times. Among other things, the auditors also brought out a well-organized exchange of information on management level, as well as good performance in various areas and effective prevention activity.

We are also required to comply with the requirements of the environmental permits issued to us. In 2014, we complied with all the requirements set in our environmental permits. As of 31.12.2014, we have been issued the following environmental permits:

  • 4 permits for a special use of water;
  • 1 waste permit;
  • 2 ambient air pollution permits.

More detailed information about the environmental permits and environmental performance is available in our 2014 Environmental Report (EMAS) available on our web page: www.tallinnavesi.ee - About us – Environment – Environmental Reports.

In a globalizing world, the supplying markets are constantly growing and changing. Looking for new suppliers, as well as monitoring and improving the cooperation with current partners are equally important to us. In 2014, the Company implemented a new system for assessing the suppliers, which enables us to have a two-way interaction with the current cooperation partners: to create a reliable base of suppliers and to employ supplier's competences in order to create additional value for the organization. Besides assessing the activity of suppliers, we also ask for a feedback on our own activity, so that thereby we could develop our relations and cooperation with the suppliers, aiming towards being a better partner.

We strive to be a reliable partner to our customers, investors, employees and representatives of the community, therefore we regularly disclose information on our activity, financial position and performance. Regular cooperation with the Trade Union and the Work Environment Council as well as analysing the results of annual employee satisfaction survey helps us to better take into account the wishes of our employees.