Biocatalysts Environmental Awareness

Our Environmental policy states that we are dedicated to minimising the impact to our environment for our activities and the products we provide, through the use of sustainable practices and continual improvement in our environmental performance.

Business is a vital part of a sustainable future and we must demonstrate to our customers and other stakeholders that we are committed to managing those activities and processes which may have an impact on the environment.

Sustainable practices can make a huge difference to the environment and can also have the following business benefits:

• Minimising raw material use
• Reduction in Energy use
• Improves employee environmental awareness by keeping them informed about specific roles and responsibilities
• Improving cost control
• Regular monitoring of our activities ensures legal compliance
• Improving the efficiency of our own processes will ultimately improve our customers’ environmental performance

But by just having an environmental policy in place, these benefits are unlikely to be achieved.  In order for us to ‘live the policy’ we must ensure that it is integrated into our business practices:

Environmental Management System – the next big step…

A key objective for our HR department this year is to achieve Environmental accreditation in line with the ISO14001 Standard by 31 December 2011.  Of course, critical to the success of this project is having the right people with the skills and knowledge on the project team.  The ideal person to champion the project was John, our EHS Co-ordinator.  John has been with the company for a year and a half, and has successfully championed the implementation of a H&S Management System with the company’s successful achievement of the OHSAS18001 standard in March 2011.  The system is now fully operating and helps provide a safe working environment for everyone. 

John is the key driver for the Environmental Management System, but for the system to be effective, he cannot do it alone.  In his usual friendly and persuasive way, John has been able to set up an Environmental Committee.  As a team they ensure that momentum and enthusiasm for environmental improvements is spread throughout the company and that recommendations for improving environmental performance are put forward to the management team. 

The Environment Committee are:

John Darlington – EHS Co-ordinator

Rob Henderson – Waste Officer

Nitin Jain – Energy Officer

Mark Jones – Pollution Control Officer

Stacey Munt – Conservation Officer

Theresa Cannon – Management Representative

Earlier this month, the Environmental committee attended a two day Environmental Awareness and Management Training course.  Awareness training for all employees will be cascaded during the next quarter.  The Environmental trainer was very impressed with our facilities and could see that we are already doing many great things and he commented on the friendliness and positive culture of the company.

Having just completed Stage 1 of the ISO14001 accreditation with BSI, we are now on track to achieve accreditation in December.