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United Kingdom - 25/09/09 BS 8555 Accreditation Puts BTCV on Course for a Full Environmental Management System BTCV, the UK-based environmental conservation volunteering charity, has successfully achieved phase 3 of BS 8555. BTCV, the UK-based environmental conservation volunteering charity, has successfully achieved phase 3 of BS 8555. BS 8555 offers a 6-phase structured approach on the way to ISO 14001 and EMAS. This allows any organisation to implement their EMS in phases and pause at each phase to fit the dynamics of their organisation. Set up in 1959, BTCV has a successful history of environmental conservation volunteering throughout the UK and around the world. Sustained environmental improvement is key to the work of BTCV, and the organisation enjoys rewarding relationships with a range of stakeholders, including corporate partners, the Government, local authorities, government agencies such as English Nature, and individual donors. WHY BS 8555 CERTIFICATION? “First of all, BS 8555 is a nationally recognised accreditation,” says Nick Hall, Head of Environment & Safety at BTCV. “It encourages good performance. By signing up to the British Standard we receive formal assessment. This helps to pin down the requirements for us as we work towards ISO 14001.” “Secondly, as a charitable organisation we’re always being asked to prove we’re environmentally astute before people will give us money. BS 8555 helps us to secure funding and business for the organisation. We’re an environmental charity with first rate environmental credentials – however even we can work harder towards being sustainable.” Nick Hall points out that since 2006 BTCV have been working with a consortium of over 20 voluntary and community sector organisations across England to deliver the Every Action Counts (EAC) programme. This initiative, backed by Defra, helps community groups take simple everyday actions that will benefit themselves and help create a cleaner, greener, fairer and safer community at the same time. “We signed the Third Sector declaration on climate change, drawn up by the EAC consortium,” says Hall. “The Declaration is a statement of intent from Third Sector organisations to tackle the issue of climate change by taking action in our organisations and in our communities.” “Finally, the BS 8555 6-phase approach suits us. It’s a bottom-up approach, which doesn’t take up a lot of top-level management time. Our members get to work with the standard in their daily work. All in all, it’s a far easier standard to implement piecemeal.” Graham Walford, Product Manager for Environmental Management Systems at SGS United Kingdom Ltd endorses this view: “BS 8555 is a standard for the phased implementation of an EMS that allows organisations to implement an EMS in manageable chunks and proceed at their own pace. On this basis it is ideally suited to an organisation such as BTCV.” TARGETS SET AND ACHIEVED “BTCV were first inspected to BS 8555 phases 1, 2 and 3 at their head office in Doncaster in 2008,” says Graham Walford. “And they have recently successfully passed their first annual re-inspection. They are now in the process of rolling out the EMS implementation programme to other key locations in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.” “We have a mixture of big national targets and small local ones,” says Nick Hall. “For example, we set out to reduce overall consumption across the organisation. We’ve been mapping CO2 production since 2006 and set a reducing target of 3% to reduce mileage, travel, and electricity consumption.” “At a local level our annual office audits lead to improvements in recycling, energy efficiency and water reduction. If a region is only recycling 70% of its rubbish we’ll increase it to 80% next year.” REVIEWING SYSTEMS FOR BS 8555 “It wasn’t a big step to prepare for BS 8555 because we already had environmental measures in place and we keep all our systems under review,” says Hall. “We’re a phenomenally green organisation.” “Most of our preparation for BS 8555 was retro-engineering. My first job in 2005 was to formalise our policy documents and put the legislation in place. This was before we looked at the new standard.” “Then we conducted a gap analysis to identify the gaps in the system – and how the management system could better demonstrate that we were doing what we claimed to be doing.” In terms of procedures BCTV only had to make a few policy tweaks. For example, minimising pollution. Many of the processes were in place, but they also needed to itemise how it was working. “We made a register of the environmental aspects and impacts, and ended up with a full belt and braces system,” adds Hall. STAFF, VOLUNTEERS AND STAKEHOLDERS ALL INVOLVED BTCV involves its members in environmental management in a variety of ways. Through the Environmental Topic Group members represent their staff locally. “The Group meets three times a year, and we bring them up to speed – they play a part in the local auditing and management and staff training.” Beneath them at the office level, an environmental office champion makes sure waste is managed properly and the lights are switched off at night. And at an individual level all staff receive a full induction into BCTV when they join the organisation, and they attend a compulsory environmental awareness course. “We’re piloting environmental budgets too. Every member monitors their travel and energy use to work out where they can make cuts and reduce their carbon emissions.” BCTV keeps all its staff and volunteers up to date via its electronic eco newsletter, which carries news on audits and environmental stories around the world. BENEFITS AND RESULTS “The key benefit of BS 8555 is that we now have a robust system: an external pair of eyes which confirms the system is working and acceptable,” says Hall. “Funders, stakeholders and the government demand that we be environmentally astute. We’re working in a competitive market – especially right now – and the standard proves our worth to them.” “The system also drives change in the organisation. We have a badge to prove it. If any of our offices want to put the certification on their letterheads then they must keep up their standards to back up their claims. It strengthens the agenda for encouraging people to do things locally.” “It’s very good for staff motivation too. We employ a lot of people who want to be part of an organisation that is trying hard. We can prove to them that we are coming up to standard.” “Finally, there’s a cost-benefit too. We use accreditation as a tool to drive forward change and efficiencies, for example we make a cost saving from the environmental management tool.” FUTURE IMPACT ON THE ORGANISATION BTCV is now rolling out BS 8555 to 10 key delivery locations in the UK. These are their regional flagships: sites with a lot of exposure or in receipt of government contracts. “We want to show they’re all beyond reproach and are ecologically sound,” says Hall. “This will lead to a more robust management system, which will drive forward any changes we need. Once it’s in place, we’ll be even more credible and competitive. We can then go for more funding and contracts.” HOW SGS SERVICES HELP “SGS were very professional, prompt and efficient, and they asked plenty of searching questions during the audit. They are also very supportive. They go the extra mile and give plenty of support. They guide you to the next level. During a recent re-accreditation of the Centre they showed us how we can progress from here to ISO 14001,” says Nick Hall. “The commitment of senior management to implementing an EMS and improving environmental performance was readily apparent within BTCV,” adds Graham Walford. “One of the advantages of BS 8555 is that environmental performance indicators are identified and developed at an early stage allowing organisations to quickly improve environmental performance and gain other tangible benefits associated with this.” “It was clear during the first inspection that BTCV were already collecting and collating data relating to energy, water and fuel consumption and that they had set tough and meaningful targets to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions. At the annual re-inspection BTCV were able to demonstrate that monitoring of performance in these areas had continued and had been further developed.” For more information please contact: SGS United Kingdom Ltd SGS House 217-221 London Road Camberley Surrey GU15 3EY United Kingdom t: +44 (0) 1276 697999 f: +44 (0) 1276 697696 |
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