ISO Certification Articles From Ireland's Leading Consultants

Setting a Green Standard with ISO 14001

Written by Caroline Geoghegan | Apr 13, 2020 4:00:39 PM

Communing with nature is a wonderful thing. And a natural element of any progressive environmental or green strategy. So is implementing an EMS. Setting a 'green standard' is a move that has seen multiple Irish and UK businesses reap reductions in their energy costs by up to a whopping 30%.

Another not insignificant benefit gained from implementing an EMS is the eligibility to compete for contracts barred to suppliers without certifiable environmental standards.

For most ISO 14001 converts, environmental standards have been extremely positive. Yet, a large proportion of UK&I companies still haven't implemented Environmental Management Systems.

We all know that time is running out to take action on the environment which is why it's so important that more companies recognise the business and social benefits of developing a green strategy.

While a large proportion of the multi-nationals and large organisations based on these islands have environmental management systems in place, many of the small and medium sized businesses have have yet to go green.

By setting a green standard - ISO 14001 - firms publicly demonstrate their commitment to the environment. ISO 14001 identifies those businesses striving to make an environmental impact, set improvement targets, and roll out the management programme required to achieve them.

Currently, over 300,000 businesses across 170+ countries have invested in the international environmental management standard.

For most companies, achieving ISO 14001 certification takes approximately three months (or twelve weeks). But what does it mean in reality?

In practical terms, applying ISO 14001 to your business ops model takes in everything from switching off the lights at the weekend to recycling ink cartridges to developing robust waste management strategies.

ISO 14001 can result in multiple benefits from enhance market and customer reputation to significantly reduced costs and increased efficiencies, not to mention the positive environmental impact. So why are so many Irish businesses still dragging their heels when it comes to implementing an EMS?

The fact remains that many business managers see protocols and standards as an incurring unnecessary costs and introducing operational hindrances. However, it has been widely accepted by industry experts that SMEs are ideally suited to seamless adoption of environmental standards primarily because their is such a small cohort in terms of buy in, training, and roll out.

Setting green standards helps generate environmental awareness, promote green responsibilities such as recycling and reduced usage of materials such as plastic, and change behaviours that can then be passed on outside of the workplace to family and friends. Environmental standards help change business and community cultures.

CG Business Consulting has over ten years' experience of helping Irish businesses implement ISO standards. Our team of ISO experts can help your business certify to ISO 14001 and implement an Environmental Management System without fuss or bother. Our ISO training courses will ensure your employees will gain the knowledge and understanding they need to adopt the standard's requirements into their daily workflows and processes.

For more information on ISO 14001 and how CG Business Consulting can help your company to set a green standard log onto our website at CGBusinessConsulting.com