ISO 14001 and Stakeholder Credibility
16th June 2009 by Alex Briggs
ISO 14001, the environmental management systems standard, is increasingly being seen as a tool to help organisations engage with their stakeholders. VWS (UK) Ltd, which incorporates the UK’s leading water and wastewater treatment companies Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies and ELGA Process Water, has gained full ISO 14001 certification of its Environmental Management System.
VWS has been working since 2006 with a project team drawn from all of the their divisions to implement ISO 14001 and achieve certification. This was awarded following a detailed audit of all five of VWS’s UK sites by Lloyds Register Quality Assurance (LRQA).
ISO 14001 defines processes and procedures which assist a business to identify the aspects of its operations that affect the environment, allowing it to assess their impact on the environment and control and reduce those impacts.
In an age where consumer and stakeholder trust are at an all-time low, independent, third-party certification and verification of environmental, quality and health and safety claims is seen as proof of commitment. Bob Snowden, Business Systems Manager for ELGA Process Water and the driving internal force behind VWS’s ISO 14001 work, said “This certification demonstrates to our customers and the public that we have taken responsibility for our environmental impact. For example waste from our process is minimised and wherever possible recycled or reused.”
Organisations are also seeing the added value of working with an accredited certification body, such as LRQA. Bob added, “This is a really important for us. But it’s just the first step. We’ll continue to develop our systems, monitored by six-monthly audits by LRQA, to ensure the continuing improvement of the company’s environmental performance.”