42 Degrees - Business from a different angle

If you are serious about reducing the environmental impact of your business, there comes a time when you realise that simply wandering around the office turning off lights and recycling waste paper is not quite enough.

You need an approach that is more systematic and more rigorous. It needs to address all aspects of your activities: supply chain, management processes, products and packaging after they leave your premises, staff; training and contingency planning.

That's why companies are increasingly applying for ISO 14001, the environmental management standard, which commits firms to minimise harmful effects on the environment caused by their activities, and to achieve continual improvement of their environmental performance.

Probably the most important thing to understand is that it is not a single set of rules imposed from on high. It is your standard set by you. "It would be impossible to develop universal regulations," says Catherine Golds an ISO assessor at certification body NQA. Instead, the standard is decided by each firm itself. "You write your own standard and of course you have to honour it," she says. But there's no point writing yourself something too easy, she warns. "If it is too lax then you will simply not be passed."

Gaining ISO 14001 involves three core commitments. "First it deals with prevention of pollution," says Golds. "You have to clean up your mess and control it. This includes everything from storing toxins to the pollution caused by your people getting to work."

But ISO 14001 is much more than just a dramatic one-off gesture. It also involves a commitment to continual improvement. "You'll need to set objectives to reduce your impacts in the future. And if you don't meet those objectives you can lose your ISO mark," warns Golds. Finally there is a commitment to comply with all applicable legislation.

But there is a fair amount of work involved, which may put off many smaller companies. So there is now an easier way for SMEs to display their environmental credentials. The IEMA Acorn Scheme, which leads to BS 8555, is a sort of ISO 14001 in bite-sized chunks. Its great advantage is that it allows companies to improve their environmental performance at a rate and to a level that suits them.

It usually takes between one and two years to gain a 14001. "Although you do need persistence and organisation, it really isn't that difficult, if you are behaving in a responsible way already," says Philip Moody, environmental manager of Fibercore, an optical fibre manufacturer in Chilworth, Southampton.

"It may have taken a few man days and cost several thousand pounds," he says, "but it was not nearly as onerous as expected. And the benefits have been substantial." ISO 14001 shows customers and the public that you are controlling your environmental risks and obeying the law, but doesn't place an unnecessary burden on your organisation.

Fibercore decided to adopt ISO 14001 in 2003. It wasn't just out of a selfless concern for the environment, admits Moody, but a response to legislative and community pressure. "We couldn't afford gestures, we had to manage our impacts precisely and methodically in a way that could be observed and measured," he says.

The company makes optical fibres for sensing applications, such as gyroscopes and endoscopes, and the process uses small quantities of quite toxic chemicals. The premises are on a science park, 500 yards from the nearest houses, and the local community was understandably concerned about any emissions. "We've had a lot of pressure from residents to make sure everything we do is safe," says Moody.

That was not the only issue. As a company that handles chemicals, Fibercore is subject to the European Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive. "It's our licence to operate. But it is quite complex and needs formalised management processes," explains Moody. "So we offered to obtain ISO 14001 and the Environment Agency made it part of our licence."

"It made us really think about issues such as process controls, having a written waste management policy, training in chemical handling and what we would do in case of a fire or other emergency," says Moody.

Although Moody had anticipated a huge amount of paperwork, the process was far easier and more beneficial than he thought. "There was a fair amount of work, but really it just formalised what we had been doing anyway." First and foremost it has allayed the fears of the local community.

It has also become a powerful tool for winning new and repeat business. "Many of our clients are policing their own supply chains," says Moody. "Some even make ISO 14001 a condition of doing business. European customers in particular are reassured by it and US customers are beginning to see that it has real value."

An unplanned benefit has been a marked effect on staff morale. Although it has only 25 employees, Fibercore is a division of Scientific Atlanta, which, in turn, is owned by hardware giant Cisco Systems, which employs 49,000 people worldwide. "It has put us on the map. Other companies in the group come to study how we've done it and the scheme has been exported to other operating units. People here feel proud of what we have achieved."

More tangible benefits have been indirect cost savings as a result of the way preparing for ISO 14001 forced the company to focus on the details of its operations. "One of the requirements of ISO 14001 is not just that you set yourself a standard, but that you keep improving on it," says Moody. "ISO 14001 gives you an easy platform to make operational efficiencies because it gives you a new way of looking at things in more precise detail."

For example, previously the company shipped its fibre optic cables on standard industry spools. "The trouble was that they were huge and went out on average five sixths empty. This clearly had implications for resource use, shipping costs and storage costs. So we commissioned a smaller reel. Not only does it give considerable transport and warehousing savings, we now receive commissions for licensing it to other companies."

The savings cut shipping costs by a third. More careful use of electricity saved 250 kilowatt hours in just a year – worth £16,000 alone. In all, Moody reckons the company has saved over £100,000 a year as a result of ISO 14001.