Advancing biometric security worldwide Morpho

Vice-president for sustainability, Anna Wessman, is dedicated to ensuring that the whole company works in as responsible a manner as possible, for the benefit of the environment, the business and its people, both employees and customers. Ms Wessman spoke to Industry Europe about how this is being achieved. She said, “We have a leading market position in all the sectors where we are active and we have been established for over 160 years. With sustainability in mind, we make products that protect people, purify air and liquids and provide surface and structure to our customers’ products. As all human activity has an impact on the environment, we only want to make products with purpose, such that are truly needed by people. With them we help our customers to achieve their own sustainability goals.”

Economic responsibility at Ahlstrom is characterised by its responsible business

conduct. As a company, it observes the law of the host country, offers local job opportunities, pays local and national taxes and brings prosperity to the region. Ahlstrom’s social responsibility is also a natural part of how the company operates, with safety, taking care of employees and offering excellent training and personal development all central issues. Furthermore, the products with purpose are made in order to have a favourable social impact.

Environmental responsibility is certainly an area where Ahlstrom shines. Passionate about both finding innovative ways to enhance its green performance and to minimise the environmental impact of its operations, Ahlstrom’s focus is throughout its entire process. Ms Wessman continued, “Our environmental responsibility programme starts in product development where 80 per cent of the environmental impacts of products are determined. We are committed to EcoDesign. All our plants are environmentally certified. We only buy pulp from companies that are certified, so that we can guarantee that the whole of our value chain is committed to sustainability too.”

Identifying excellence

Ahlstrom has identified five key performance indicators that support its sustainability programme and reflect its targets with regard to reduced environmental impact. Water intake, electrical efficiency, fuel energy, waste to landfill and CO2 emissions are all major areas of importance, with each area given substantial concentration. Ms Wessman pointed out, “We have set ourselves a zero waste to landfill target to be achieved by 2015.”

With 91 per cent of its fibre raw materials coming from renewable sources in 2012 and all its wood fibre suppliers having thirdparty certification in their forests, responsible sourcing and knowing the origin of the fibres is an important issue.

Ahlstrom’s vision is to be inspiring people, passionate about new ideas and growing with customers. Ms Wessman added, “We are continually driven to create sustainable and profitable relationships with our customers. By offering competitively priced, value added products to our customers across the world we will continue to grow and succeed. As all of our products are developed and manufactured in as sustainable a manner as possible, our customers can work with us safe in the knowledge that we can positively contribute to their own sustainability aims and help them stay ahead.” n

ADVANCING BIOMETRIC SECURITY WORLDWIDE

Morpho is a global leader in the development and manufacture of identification, detection and e-document solutions. The company has seen strong growth in its delivery of security systems to governments and national agencies, as well as to administrations dedicated to law enforcement and border control. Philip Yorke takes a closer look at a company that is responsible for an increasing number of the world’s most advanced technologies and is number one in many of its high-tech disciplines.

Morpho is the clear market leader in security solutions worldwide and subsidiary of the giant Safron Group of the USA. The Safran Group’s three core businesses are: aerospace, defence and security. In 2012, the group recorded sales of over €13.6 billion and it currently employs more than 62,500 people. Today the security business is playing a major role in Safran’s future development. Morpho’s integrated security systems are already deployed in more than 100 countries worldwide and generate annual revenues of over €1.5 billion.

In addition, the company has more than 85 subsidiaries and branches covering all five continents and is supported by over 8100 employees across the globe. In order to maintain its high-profile leadership position, Morpho dedicates over 10 per cent of its turnover to cutting-edge research and development, which in 2012 amounted to more than €160 million.

Revolutionising biometric ID technology

The advanced techniques used by Morpho in its core field of biometrics are being continuously enhanced to offer greater speed and efficiency. This is applicable to all areas of identification including the processing of finger and palm prints, as well as in facial recognition, iris recognition and the combined uses of these multi-biometric disciplines.

Morpho has been a pioneer in this field for 30 years and today leads the world in this vital technology sector. The company’s development of its precise and fast ‘automated fingerprint identification system’ (AFIS) is capable of millions of matches per second. In the fight against counterfeit fraud, Morpho’s EMV Pro-Digit technology embodies all the advantages of biom-

etric payment systems. This cutting-edge equipment brings significant advances and improvements in protection against counterfeit fraud, as well as offering greater user convenience and improved overall efficiency for card users.

With Morpho’s biometric payment systems there are fewer possibilities for stealing pin codes of card holders, and it also offers more secure web services. Furthermore, biometric authentication guarantees maximum privacy, together with safe storage of personal information, because the user’s biometric data is kept confidential between the smart card and the biometric sensors. Today Morpho’s one-touch authentication via fingerprint reading revolutionises card security. In addition, users no longer need to worry about losing or forgetting PIN codes. With this system they are free to choose between biometric payment and payment per password or signature identification. This advanced biometric technology means reduced PIN code management and subsequently reduced costs for card issuers, since fewer customers are at risk of losing their cards.

It is also worth noting that Morpho’s unrivalled expertise in biometrics is shared across the entire company through the merging and standardisation of scores,