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Reducing risk to the environment
29 May 2008
Topics: Environment, ISO 14001, Health & safety, OHSAS 18001, Quality management, ISO 9001, Entropy Software
Norfolk Environmental Waste Services (NEWS), a waste management company in East Anglia, has achieved certification to ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001 and ISO 9001. The firm employs innovative approaches to the handling and management of waste, from recycling, reuse and composting through to landfill design, construction and operation.
Since 1993, NEWS has been an arms-length company of Norfolk County Council, operating landfill, transfer stations and a modern recycling plant - taking all of Norfolk's collected recyclables - and is "Preferred Bidder" for a residual waste treatment contract for Norfolk, which will handle 150,000 tonnes of residual waste per year, going live in 2011.
Justin Galliford is the operations development manager at NEWS. He was brought in to integrate environmental, health and safety, and quality management systems, gain certification to ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001 and ISO 9001, and create a software framework that could bring tangible business efficiencies as well as enable future expansion. There were three key drivers for the project:
>the need to streamline ways of working (internal performance and efficiency drivers) while rolling out the NEWS "culture";
>an increasing requirement in the marketplace for certified management systems - prospective commercial waste collection customers were insisting on compliance to recognized standards to give them assurance (without it, NEWS could not bid for some new business); and
>to retain existing clients - differentiation from competitors in the form of systems certified to ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001 and ISO 9001 was an advantage.
Says Galliford: "It was obvious that the use of technology to help gain and maintain triple certification was the route to follow. BSI's Entropy Software™ was chosen as it represented several years' experience, expertise and domain knowledge, as well as overall value for money. We are now beginning to implement the software platform, and have had initial kick-off and training sessions with Entropy project specialists who will be helping to ensure project success."
For more information, visit: www.bsigroup.com/may08entropy
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