Welcome to our monthly update…
October was another busy month for the Mark1 team, as well as 7 days’ worth of virtual assessment assistance, we conducted various audits and management reviews, as has become the norm. Our webinar, ‘Working in a Remote ISO World,’ that took place on the 7th of October was a great success and we have already started planning our next event as we look to bring people together to share and discuss new topics in the near future.
As the nights draw in, we encourage our team to try to get a bit of fresh air in daylight, every day, in their local environment. With most of the North-West being put into Tier 3, and the recent news of the imminent National Lockdown, it is a good time to discover what the ‘Great Outdoors’ has to offer across the locality. Indeed our background photo was taken by our office manager in her local park last week!
This month, we’ve also conducted a higher percentage than usual of Environmental Audits (ISO 14001) and this brings me to the main focus of the newsletter this month…
ISO 14001 – Environmental Management Systems (EMS)
Although we continue to conduct the vast majority of our consultancy remotely, this can be particularly challenging when it comes to an Environmental Audit.
ISO 14001 demonstrates an organisations dedication to controlling the environmental impact of its activities. An EMS should actively control the way organisations understand and manage their ‘footprint’ to ensure sustainability, prevent pollution and protect the environment. Cost savings can be made through improved efficiency and productivity, helping to reduce bills and enhance environmental sustainability.
This is achieved by detecting ways to minimise waste and appropriately dispose of it, ensuring an organisation is on track in managing its impacts and risks. An Environmental audit is conducted with a view to understand the premises in question and how its activities could affect the environment. This would usually involve a site visit, together with interviews/discussions with relevant stakeholders.
Due to advances in technology (particularly video conferencing) and by using our cloud-based ISO management system software, Titan, it has been possible to conduct most of these audits remotely. However, due to the very nature of ISO 14001 (which is about your ‘actual’ environment – not a ‘virtual’ one) it is particularly challenging. Certain situations (largely dependent on the type of business you run) dictate that a site visit still needs to be conducted to enable a thorough and comprehensive analysis.
With this in mind, Mark 1, continue to offer the best solution for your business needs, whilst continually bearing in mind the risks associated with Covid19 and your current policies related to it. So, if you are interested in achieving ISO14001 please contact us here.
What’s Next…
Next month we’ll be having a look at a ‘week in the life’ of a consultant and we’ll be taking bookings for our next Webinar that will be running in December. With Brexit due to complete at the end of this year, we will also be completing all of our preparations for trading in the EU in to 2021.
Thanks for reading our October Update and we wish everyone all the best over the next month.
The Mark 1 Team
