Archive for July, 2010
Newer Entries »Green Marketing Analyst gets IEMA Certificate.
Thursday, July 15th, 2010
Our Green Marketing Analyst, Leigh Tymms has passed his certificate exam and is now an Associate of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment. He has also how taken his exam for the NEBOSH National Diploma in Environmental Management and is waiting for the results…so fingers crossed!
Green Marketing
Leigh is a Chartered Marketer. Having consultants with this expertise allows E Advantage, we believe, to add more value to our clients. What makes E Advantage unique is the joined up thinking we bring, not only facilitating environmental compliance but how environmental responsibility can be used to achieve a competitive advantage, engaging stakeholders, launching new propositions, winning and retaining business.
Read more about the environmental competitive advantage of which green marketing plays a significant part.
Substantiating Claims
The other core reason that we believe it is important to have consultants on the team who understand both marketing and environmental considerations is that there is the need to heavily substantiate environmental driven communications and still ensure they are effective. Regulators, such as the Advertising Standards Agency are getting tough on spurious green claims. Examples (the tip of the iceberg) of areas they are particularly focusing their attention are noted on their website as:
- Get your facts right. Don’t exaggerate the environmental benefits of your product: advertising claims should be backed up with documentary evidence
- This is an area where scientific knowledge is developing all the time. Don’t present claims as being universally accepted if the science is inconclusive
- Don’t use pseudo-science, or terms that will not be generally understood by the readers of your ad
- Avoid sweeping or absolute claims such as “environmentally friendly” or “wholly biodegradable”. It’s unlikely that you will be able to prove your product has no environmental impact
- Saying something is ‘locally’ produced should mean exactly that. Shipping goods in from abroad or the other end of the country doesn’t make them ‘locally sourced’.
(ASA, 2007)
Want to talk more about green marketing? Call us today on 01280 812 909
Tags: Environmental Managment, Green Marketing, IEMA, Training
Posted in Environmental Advantage, Environmental Management System (EMS), Green Marketing, Latest News
BS EN 16001 Auditors
Thursday, July 15th, 2010
BS EN 16001 Auditors:
Tom Whelan and Richard Johnson have qualified as Auditors for BS EN 16001 (soon to become ISO 50001, the standard for energy management systems.
E Advantage will continue to be at the forefront of energy management best practice and supported by the auditor qualification, are able to develop your energy management systems in such a way that it will satisfy the criteria of the auditors which assess them.
Energy management remains one of the best ways for an organisation to environmentally reduce its costs: “With few no cost measures, organisations could save 10% of business energy costs and with a few low cost options; this could be 20%” (Carbon Trust, 2009). A survey from the BSI group clearly showed this was the primary driver for organisations undertaking this work. (BSI, 2010).
For all of your energy management and BS EN 16001 requirements, call us today on 01280 812 909
Tags: Auditors, BS EN 16001, Energy Management Systems, ISO 50001
Posted in Energy saving
Environmental Management, Frequently Asked Questions
Thursday, July 15th, 2010
On an almost daily basis, we receive some very good questions, from individuals that are considering whether they require an environmental management system and want more information to help make this decision. We’ve complied a few of these that we hope you will find helpful:
1.What is an environmental management system?
The Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) define it as:
An Environmental Management System (EMS) is a structured framework for managing an organisation’s significant environmental impacts.
In a world where environmental legislation continues to increase at a rapid pace and is becoming costly to some businesses, an EMS helps them achieve compliance and turn what could otherwise be seen as a burden into an advantage.
An environmental management systems can be certified to a standard, such as BS8555, the Eco Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) and the one we prefer to use for clients at E Advantage, (generally because of its international recognition) ISO 14001. All of the accreditations have many similarities in their approach. You can effectively run a environmental management system in its infancy without such an accreditation – but having one does add more weight to your efforts and helps the benefits to be fully realised.
2. If environmental regulation is costing me, why spend more money implementing an environmental management system?
It’s all about the return on investment that is possible through having a robust environmental management system in place. This comes from several sources:
Reduced liability costs: Environmental legislation is primarily designed to make the polluter pay. Keeping within the regulation using an EMS reduces the potential for fines, prosecution and other exposure.
Employee Engagement: Several studies have shown that employees who understand the organisations approach to reducing its environmental impacts are generally more committed. Financially this can mean a more productive workforce and less costs associated with staff churn.
Cost reductions: Reducing energy, waste, water and raw materials can reduce operational costs hugely. We’ve saved clients over 20% of their utilities bills for example – so the one off investment in building the system will pay back for many years.
Marketing benefits: Win and retain business. Being able to respond to requests for information and demonstrate environmental responsibility to customers and other stakeholders could be worth a significant amount to your business.
3. What’s involved in developing a successful environmental management system?
It can be a complicated process but keeping to the basics, the important areas include:
- Initial site and operational review
- Developing and environmental policy and register of all environmental legislation relevant to the business
- Identification of areas the organisation interacts with, effects or is effected by the environment – the ‘aspects’ and impacts’
- Prioritising the most significant aspects
- Setting targets, objectives and planning the implementation of these, to address the significant aspects and reduce negative impacts on the environment
- Project management, generating awareness, altering ways or working and often a degree of culture change
- Monitoring progress, reporting management information and planning for improvements
- Audits and certification
- The cycle continues on a plan-do-check-act basis
If this has sparked your interest, you have questions you would like answered or want to discuss your environmental management system requirements call us today on 01280 812 909.
Tags: Environmental Management System, iso 14001, Questions
Posted in Environmental Advantage, Environmental Management System (EMS), ISO14001, Latest News
20 Ways to Reduce Your Waste
Thursday, July 15th, 2010
Reduce your waste and you reduce the associated charges. Landfill tax alone is £48 per tonne (from 1 April 2010) and increasing by £8 per tonne each year until at least 2014 – so it’s easy to see why DEFRA suggest some organisations can save up to 1% of turnover by implementing some simple steps to minimise and manage waste.
Here’s a few tips to get you started…
Reduce / Eliminate:
- Is that purchase really necessary? In that volume?
- Aspire for the ‘paperless office’ and duplex printing where necessary
- Reduce the packaging on your products
- Requesting suppliers reduce their packaging or take it away with them
- Consider if the waste material can be put back into the production process to reduce costs
- Encourage the use of reusable (e.g. mugs / washable towls) rather than disposable (e.g. plastic cups and paper towls) products
Reuse:
- Maintain and repair items
- Reuse folders, cartridges (e.g. refills or lease agreements), disks etc.
- Find alternative uses for items e.g. shredded paper is great for lining rabbit hutches
- Give items away, for reuse by someone who needs it: uk.freecycle.org
Recycle:
- Sort the different waste streams as far as possible – there are ways of recycling many items beyond what is part of a standard collection, if you look around, especially online
- Make full use of the recycling services available and encourage other employees to do the same
- If you have a waste material, another party may be able to use it, to reduce your waste costs – sometimes they even pay for it. Examples are: materials-exchange.org.uk and salvomie.co.uk
- Give to Charity – Help the aged and Age Concern have ink cartridge take-back schemes, there are similar for phones and other equipment.
- Composting – ever considered a wormery or compost heap to dispose of the tea bags and food waste? It produces some great compost for the garden!
Stay compliant:
- If appropriate, ensure your waste contractor has a permit in place and is taking it to a permitted site for disposal – permit numbers can be checked via the Environment Agency
- Ensure any Waste Transfer Notes are fully completed by both you and the contractor and are kept for 2 years
- Make sure all waste is kept securely
- Remember WEEE (Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment) should be disposed of separately, not as part of the regular waste or recycling
- Ensure different types of waste (e.g. kitchen, hygiene, electronic goods, hazardous waste, rubble etc) are stored separately
Remember, to demonstrate your continued environmental improvement , you should ensure that you record current waste levels and then measure again after you have implemented these tips. We would love to hear how you get on and if you have any good tips of your own to share, please let us know.
For further information or to discuss your waste management requirements call us today on 01280 812 909.
Tags: duty of care, environmental protection act, waste managment, Ways to reduce waste
Posted in Latest News, Waste Management