On Wednesday, March 27, 2013, His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco received the ISO 9001 and 14001 International Standards Certificate on behalf of his foundation, Fondation Prince Albert II de Monaco.

“The ISO 9001 certificate confirms that the quality management system implemented internally has been certified in accordance with a set of “good practice” standards with a view to improving quality and satisfying its “clients”. The ISO 14001 certificate confirms that the organisation’s environmental management system complies with the best practice in force so as to minimise its environmental impact.

The certificates issued mean that people externally will know that the processes used internally by the Foundation meet the standard requirements and that it operates in line with them.

The Prince Albert II Foundation’s adherence to these international standards is a guarantee that it works in compliance with the standards in force, for the purposes of ensuring the sound management of its actions, testing its efficiency on a continuous basis and constantly improving the quality of its relations with its partners, in a permanent effort to reduce the environmental impact generated by its activities.

In the form of processes, the Foundation optimizes the quality of the services it delivers to the various people it deals with:  Donors, Project Managers and Governing Bodies. It minimises the environmental impact of its activities, implements action plans to prevent incidents, continuously strives to improve its processes and performance, sets up management tools adapted to the diversity of its projects and, of course, complies with all the legal requirements.

The systems that the Foundation has implemented will be evaluated every year in order to ensure that its activities still comply with the standards.

The ISO 14001 certification process is part of the strategy the Foundation has adopted to reduce its ecological footprint. For information, in 2011 the Villa Girasole, the Foundation’s headquarters, benefitted from a photovoltaic solar power system consisting of 36 panels covering a surface area of 60m2, thus contributing towards the energy efficiency efforts already made. This has resulted in a 50% reduction in power consumption compared to 2005, with 20% of the total annual consumption already being generated by the photovoltaic system.”

In other news, in a recent interview with the newspaper, Monaco Matin, the sovereign prince announced his plan to extend the Principality of Monaco out to sea by roughly 14 acres (5-6 hectares):

“I have decided to launch an extension into the sea to the east of the principality after having studied various proposals since 2008.  The extension will be located between Portier and the Grimaldi Forum.  The buildings should not be too high and green spaces living spaces will be provided. 

I will pay particular attention to ensure the project respects the strict environmental rules that I will impose, during the construction as well as during the use of the new surfaces created…”