Preparing an Environmental Policy

Transcription

1 Preparing an Environmental Policy Compiled by Keith Snook May /5

2 Background An environmental policy is an agreed documented statement of a business's stance towards the environment in which it operates. The policy is the corner stone of its intent to reduce its carbon footprint, improve recycling, reduce reliance on packaging, minimise waste and improve efficiencies on finite natural resources in all of the business's operations and products. All environmental commitments should be an integral part of the day to day activities, clearly communicated to all employees and may form part of application for ISO certification. What should an environmental policy contain? Although there is no legal requirement or standard structure for an environmental policy, there are key issues that such a policy should address. It should identify the key objectives that the business is following, who is accountable and how these are to be achieved and by whom. An environmental policy should commit to: an on-going process of improvement the principle of preventing pollution, as opposed to dealing with pollution once it has happened complying with environmental legislation and regulations, and other environmental requirements, e.g. voluntary agreements, which apply to its activities, products and/or services getting its employees involved in the system and resulting environmental improvement measures. Other formal requirements are that the policy: must fit with the nature, scale and environmental impacts of the organisation's activities, products or services must be documented, communicated and easily available for all employees must be made publicly available, whether in writing or on the internet should be reviewed on a regular basis at the highest management level and adapted where necessary, e.g. if there are major changes in the organisation. All current sustainability issues should be covered for both the business operation and its product. For architecture, in common with all design, this also must include the approach to the issues embodied through the implementation of the designs. In fact these are invariably the most important in terms of eventual global impact as design businesses tend to be quite small in themselves compared to the impact of the products resulting from their designs. Any internal or external communication should be succinct and easily understood and an environmental policy is no different. Ideally it should be set on one sheet of A4 paper and contain the key commitments the policy undertakes. However for design it is useful to have two sets of issues one for the business itself and one related to the products of the design. It is actually helpful and adds to clarity for these to be separable. 2/5

3 Sample of an environmental policy statement 1 Our workplace: We are committed to providing a quality service in a manner that ensures a safe and healthy workplace for our employees, visitors and minimises our potential impact on the environment. We will operate in compliance with all relevant environmental legislation and we will strive to use pollution prevention and environmental best practices in all we do. We will: integrate the consideration of environmental concerns and impacts into all of our decision making and activities promote environmental awareness among our employees and encourage them to work in an environmentally responsible manner, such as by working electronically wherever it is safe and secure to do so while ensuring that all key information is fully and securely backed up reduce waste through re-use and recycling and by purchasing recycled, recyclable or refurbished equipment, products and materials where these alternatives are available, economical and suitable ensure responsible disposal of remaining unavoidable waste promote efficient use of space heating/lighting, equipment, materials and resources including water, electricity, raw materials and other resources, particularly those that are non-renewable purchase and use environmentally responsible products accordingly include energy efficiency as one of the selection criteria when purchasing new equipment avoid unnecessary use of hazardous materials and products, seek substitutions when feasible, and take all reasonable steps to protect human health and the environment when such materials must be used, stored and disposed of where required by legislation or where significant health, safety or environmental hazards exist, develop and maintain appropriate emergency response programmes communicate our environmental commitment to clients, customers and the public and encourage them to support it strive to continually improve our environmental performance and minimise the social impact and damage of activities by periodically reviewing our environmental policy in light of our current and planned future activities use public transport in preference to travel by car wherever it is possible and effective to do so. Signature of person responsible for workplace policy:- (print name) (signature) (position) (date) 3/5

4 2 Our designs: We recognise that the products of our designs will have far more environmental impact than our own operations therefore we are further committed to exercising our professional skills in such a way as to minimise environmental impact in so far as this is possible within the instructions received from our clients. We are committed: to raise the awareness of clients about sustainability and environmental protection, and help the members of the design team to develop a shared vision of environmental aspirations to ensure as far as possible that building projects are supported by a travel plan that promotes sustainable travel choices through public transport and cycling provision to assess sites for their ecological value and microclimate, and ensure buildings make best use of the natural features of the site including sun, wind and landscape to ascertain the potential for local power generation from renewable energy sources locally or on site to ensure that biodiversity is protected or enhanced to make best use of orientation and shape to reduce the need for artificial forms of conditioning to operate a right-first-time culture (through our QM system) for our production information in order to avoid wasteful site reworking to minimise the use of construction materials, and specify materials and components with the optimum balance between environmental impact and performance in use to ensure that building services are inherently efficient and controllable, and that metering encourages monitoring and management of resource use to ensure that buildings are commissioned fully before handover, and that full operating manuals are provided to support clients in the first few months of operation by providing on-site training and advice to ensure that systems are fine-tuned and operate in accordance with the design intent. Signature of person responsible for design policy:- (print name) (signature) (position) (date) 4/5

5 What is ISO 14001? The ISO standard is part of the standard series which is a guide to environmental management principles, systems and supporting techniques. ISO is the internationally recognised specification for an environmental system within the organisation. At its heart, it requires that an environmental policy exists within the organisation and fully supported by the senior management of the company. This policy should say how the company complies with environmental legislation and a commitment to continuous improvement. Benefits of ISO Certification There are many benefits of gaining an ISO certification and an Environmental Management System (EMS): complies with all legislation gives competitive advantage over companies without ISO when tendering shares principles with ISO 9001 shows your company's commitment towards environmental issues improves company's management of environmental risk. Getting Certification Generally from a standing start your company should be able to get ISO certification within 6-12 months of starting the project. Normally you need to show that an environmental system has been in place for at least 3 months. There are many accreditation bodies under the UKAS scheme (United Kingdom Accreditation Service) so you need to choose one to undertake your assessment. It is best to get quotes from 3 or 4 - not only for price but for their success in getting accreditation and the quality of the people working for the organisation. The process undertaken is common to all UKAS accredited organisations. You will have a first stage audit undertaken to see how you meet the key requirements of the standard. You will then be provided with a list of key issues that will need to be addressed before the second stage of the audit is conducted. Stage 2 is to ascertain whether your working practices now meet the requirements of the standard. The two-stage approach to the audit should maximise your chances of successful certification at the first attempt. Once you gain your ISO certificate you will be audited every three years and have "surveillance" visits every six months where partial elements of your environmental system will be looked at and your certification will remain in place so long as you continue to apply to the standards outlined. Find an accredited body on the UKAS website. Full range of ISO Standards Environmental Management Systems: 14001, 14002, Environmental Auditing: 14010, 10411, Evaluation of Environmental Performance: Environmental Labelling: 14020, 14021, 14022, 14023, 14024, Life Cycle Assessment: 14040, 14041, 14042, /5