ITT Industries Systems operation in Kaiserslautern, Germany, -- sometimes referred to as K-Town -- was recently named one of the most "environmentally friendly" companies in the state of Rheinland-Pfalz. K-Town has approximately 280 ITT Industries employees on-site, providing full-service operations and maintenance support for the U.S. Army's NATO Defense Force headquartered in Kaiserslautern. In selecting the company, the Ministry for Environment and Forests said it was "overwhelmingly impressed" with the company's efforts to integrate both German and American environmental laws into its environmental management system and training program. Here, Thomas Schmitt, manager of Quality Control and Environment, Safety & Health (ESH) for the Kaiserslautern operation, explains how the company achieved this cross-cultural ESH success: What are the challenges of implementing a comprehensive ESH program at a military base with German and American employees? Language is certainly one of the biggest challenges. To be in full compliance, we need to ensure that 100 percent of our employees understand what we were asking them to do. That's why we developed a bi-lingual ESH flyer to keep our employees well informed on all environmental, safety and health issues. Even our ESH slogan is in two languages: Do the Right Thing Every Time and Mache das Richtige -- Immer! Another challenge is that the military many times has more stringent requirements than if we were working in the commercial sector. So we have to place a very high priority on our ESH efforts. Do you adhere to German environmental laws or U.S. laws? We analyze both countries' laws and regulations and follow the stricter one. For example, in Germany, fire extinguishers need to be inspected every two years, but we follow the OSHA requirement of annual inspections. On the other hand, we follow the German requirement for hazardous materials. OSHA only asks that you keep a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for each hazardous material on site, but we are in compliance with German safety regulation which requires an MSDS plus a Betriebsanweisung or safety policy. You won the award for a long list of ESH efforts (see sidebar box). Going forward, what projects are you working on? You can never stop trying to improve your performance in the areas of environment, safety and health. We are currently working on finalizing a job hazard analysis/study to identify all hazards associated with different positions and then initiate immediate corrective actions. What do you think the "Environmentally Friendly" award says about your ESH efforts? I believe that this award recognizes our many years of hard work and continuous improvement in the ESH area. It also shows that our employees care about the environment and continuously look for ways to prevent accidents and environmental pollution.			Thomas Schmitt (far left), Manfred Wust (third from left) and Tim Lorenz (second from right), were the three ITT representatives on hand to accept their "Environmentally Friendly" award. Here are just some of the reasons ITT Industries Systems earned its "Environmentally Friendly" honor: Implemented a Quality Management System in 1999 and qualified for the newer, stricter ISO 9000:2000 certification program in 2002. Implemented an Environmental Management System (ISO 14001) in 1999 and achieved re-certification in 2002. Pursued aggressive program to find substitutes for hazardous materials. Developed intensive ESH training programs. Included Environment and Health topics in quarterly Safety meetings. Produced regular, bi-lingual safety bulletins and ISO newsletters. Conducted quarterly inspections of more than 50 hazmat storage facilities.