Environmental Management System (EMS) and Certification: Why it’s Important.
An Environmental Management System (EMS) is a system made up of documents such as policies, procedures, and forms accompanied by on site practices. The system is designed to support a company (such as Electrical Estimates) in demonstrating good environmental management to clients, to help protect the environment and reduce environmental impacts where possible.
Electrical Estimates has documentation and procedures to support the requirements necessary for EMS such as: an environmental policy, objectives, an environmental compliance register, spreadsheets for monitoring utility usage and other documents and procedures.
What are the key requirements for an EMS?
The key requirements for an EMS are: to prevent pollution at all times, to protect the environment, to be legally compliant with Environmental Legislation and to continually improve environmental performance.
Most companies today have an Environmental Policy, and more companies are deciding to have a formal Environmental Management System which builds upon this. There are a variety of reasons as to why this is important, for example:
- The Public Sector – Local authorities and National and Regional Governments for example, are now often asking companies to specify in the pre-qualification questionnaires (PPQs) what kind of Environmental Management System they have in place.
- Principal Contractors and Clients – They often require good environmental management from their suppliers.
Why do Companies Require Good Environmental Practice?
Governments have challenging targets to meet for reducing carbon emissions alongside waste and landfill production, whilst also collating millions of pounds worth of goods and services every year. We are a part of that supply chain.
Also, principal contractors bid for work from clients who in turn bid for work from Governments’ infrastructure building programmes, so it’s important that we are on top of our Environmental Practices.
By implementing a formal EMS, we at Electrical Estimates are able to better ensure that we are legally compliant by making regular legal checks. We can also better ensure we don’t pollute the environment by assessing and managing our risks in this regard and can therefore demonstrate to our customers that we take our environmental responsibilities seriously.
What if we don’t conform to our EMS?
It’s vital to us at Electrical Estimates that we conform to our EMS, as there are a variety of consequences for not doing so. If a company does not comply to its EMS it could rightfully lose business, with clients opting to go to other suppliers who do. Even worse, a company that does not comply with its EMS could pollute the environment and face prosecution, thus adding to the issue of climate change and pollution.
Electrical Estimates has its EMS inspected annually by a third-party inspection body. The inspector checks the EMS paperwork has been put in place properly and conducts a site inspection. They also discuss with staff about how they manage their work in a way that helps the environment.
After a successful inspection we receive a certificate of compliance against the BS 8555 Seren Scheme. This gives you the assurance that we are operating an EMS to a high standard.
It’s important to us at Electrical Estimates that we maintain good environmental procedure due to our environmental impacts such as: materials, travel to and from sites, waste, energy, water, and other office consumables – because of our EMS Certification, we can promise that these are all controlled with processes, procedures, checks and training.
We also encourage continual improvement so if you need to know more or have any ideas for how we can improve our environmental performance please let us know!
