QMS & EMS London

Chris Queen Most airport development projects will require EIA given the size and nature of the works. Airport development commonly gives rise to a range of potentially significant environmental impacts prior to mitigation, including: noise disturbance to local residents and wildlife; pollutant emissions; increased energy and fuel demand; increased surface access traffic; landscape and visual effects; and enhanced risks of water pollution, flooding, contamination and ecological effects. At the same time, most airports are major contributors to local and regional employment and economies and their planned growth can give rise to significant socioeconomic benefits, while aircraft manufacturers and the main airport operators have made considerable investment in innovative measures to help mitigate adverse environmental effects.

NASA Landscape intelligence is how earth observation data specialist Rezatec describes its use of satellite and other remote-sensing technologies to help businesses manage their land-based assets and respond to environmental changes. Since its formation two years ago, the company, which originated at University College London (UCL), has used earth observation (EO) techniques on projects ranging from measuring carbon stock to mapping Mallorca’s bio-economy. Partners include organisations as diverse as the European Space Agency (ESA), green cleaning products manufacturer Ecover, British Sugar and power generator Drax.

International Organization for Standardization The revised standard aims to align environmental management systems more closely with an organisation’s strategy. It places greater emphasis on reducing environmental impacts across the whole life-cycle of products and services including supply chains and in the development and use of products and services.  The new standard will also require organisations to consider impacts from a changing environment and provide a framework for organisations to manage the risks and maximise opportunities from trends such as scarcity of natural resources and climate change. 

The Going Green Working Group – part of the British Psychological Society – recently conducted a survey of sustainability professionals. It found that an emerging issue, one that is highly challenging both now and in the future, is the integration of sustainability into core business. Psychology focuses on factors that influence an individual’s behaviour, either the individual alone or as part of a group. It is individual change that can achieve social, economic and environmental sustainability, ultimately embedding these into the core strategy of organisations.

It is a common process-improvement scenario: After a project team or a work group is formed, members have a series of productive meetings and workshops, but then nothing happens. How many times has it felt like there are great team dynamics in the conference room but when it comes time to execute change, no one acts? What drives these disconnects? Many people want to attribute these failures (and they are failures) to the quality methodologies used. It is not uncommon to hear, for example, that Six Sigma is too complex or that Lean works best in production environments. For every method there is an excuse. But the failures transcend industry, culture, education and reward structure. What is more frustrating about this “almost engaged,” “almost empowered” phenomenon is that the people participating believe, during the workshops, that they are doing everything right. They believe they are highly engaged and most outsiders would look in and agree.

In December 2008, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) signed an outsourcing agreement with facilities management and support services company Interserve. The financial scale and duration of the contract – around £750 million over 15 years – was not particularly remarkable, but the sustainability targets attached to the deal distinguished it from many other facilities management (FM) contracts. It also differed from typical FM contracts in that Interserve is also responsible for more strategic services, such as energy management.

Part one of our series (September 2014) looking at environment and sustainability standards focused on some of those associated with ISO 14001, the global benchmark for environment management systems. Part three of the series will focus on standards for auditing management systems and for reporting.