Environmental Sustainability | Page-1| Sustainable Directions

ISO 14001 certification

Organisations who have previously completed the 6P Green Program or who are intending to complete the 6P Green Program can now contact us to arrange formal ISO 14001:2004 certification through a 3rd party environmental auditor.

This will provide independent verification that your environmental practices meet the guidelines contained in ISO 14001:2004, the internationally recognised standard for Environmental Management Systems.

The environmental policies and procedures template provided in the 6P Green Program has been developed in conjunction with MAUS Business Systems and is in line with ISO 14001:2004 guidelines. ISO 14001:2004 is the internationally recognised standard for Environmental Management Systems (Policies and Procedures). The standard serves as a framework to assist organisations in developing their own environmental management system and can be integrated with other management functions and assists companies in meeting their environmental and economic goals.

"ISO 14001, as with other ISO 14000 standards, is voluntary, with its main aim to assist companies in continually improving their environmental performance, whilst complying with any applicable legislation. Organisations are responsible for setting their own targets and performance measures, with the standard serving to assist them in meeting objectives and goals and the subsequent monitoring and measurement of these. This means that two organizations that have completely different measures and standards of environmental performance, can both comply with ISO 14001 requirements.

The standard can be applied to a variety of levels in the business, from organisational level, right down to the product and service level. Rather than focusing on exact measures and goals of environmental performance, the standard highlights what an organization needs to do to meet these goals. Success of the system is very dependant on commitment from all levels of the organisation, especially top management, who need to be actively involved in the development, implementation and maintenance of the environmental management system.

In 2008 there were an estimated 188 000 companies from 155 countries, certified as ISO 14001 compliant. ISO 14001 is known as a generic management system standard, meaning that it is applicable to any size and type of organisation, product or service, in any sector of activity and can accommodate diverse socio-cultural and geographic conditions".

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Enviro services for Micro Biz

iStock_000002266764Small We are pleased to announce a range of environmental business services specifically tailored for micro businesses that employ 5 staff or less. According to the NSW Government, the Micro Biz sector is one of the fastest growing business sectors in Australia.

Micro businesses have the same responsibility as larger organisations to minimise their impact on the environment and in fact it is often easier for micro business to become carbon neutral due to their low carbon emissions from business operations. Many micro business, particularly one person businesses, work from a home office that generally has lower energy requirements.

The following environmental services have been developed and designed for the Micro Biz sector:

1. Carbon Footprint Calculation - measuring the carbon emissions of a micro biz and providing access to a Carbon Management system for ongoing monitoring.

2. On-site Energy Inspection - conducted by a qualified assessor who will provide valuable advice on how to minimise energy usage.

3. Policies & Procedures - a suite of policies, procedures and forms that have been developed in line with ISO 14001: 2004 guidelines but designed specifically for the micro biz sector.

These services can be purchased individually at a price to suit the budgets of micro businesses and a special "package price" for all 3 services is also available. Contact us here for more details.

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We are going Carbon Neutral

istock_000002456588small At Sustainable Directions we are taking our own advice and during 2012 we are aiming to become carbon neutral. The first step in achieving our objective is to calculate our carbon footprint using a reputable carbon management tool.

The carbon management software will convert our annual electricity, gas, business travel, waste, water and paper usage into a single greenhouse gas equivalent figure.

Our carbon neutral action plan is as follows:

1. Measure the carbon footprint of our business activities and our office at Innovation House, Mawson Lakes. We will use the Energy Analytics system to calculate our annual carbon emissions, taking into account:

Electricity usage
Water usage
Paper usage
Waste to landfill
Business travel - vehicles
Business travel - airfares

2. Once we have analysed our carbon footprint we will develop reduction strategies to tackle the main areas.

3. After developing reduction strategies to reduce our carbon emissions as much as possible, we will then look to offset our remaining unavoidable emissions using a reputable offset program.

4. We will then continue to monitor and manage our carbon footprint using the Energy Analytics system on an ongoing basis.

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