REGIONAL FOCUS > Raising The Standard For 50 Environmentally Friendly SMEs
Published: Thursday, 06 Mar, 2008
East Midlands Development Agency (emda) has launched a new project to help 50 businesses from across the region develop their own Environmental Management System (EMS) in line with the British Standard (BS) 8555
Raising the standard for 50 environmentally friendly SMEs
20 July 2007
Article from East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA)
East Midlands Development Agency (emda) has launched a new project to help 50 businesses from across the region develop their own Environmental Management System (EMS) in line with the British Standard (BS) 8555. Over £200,000 has been allocated to the year-long East Midlands Environmental Management Support Programme (EMS), which will offer free advice, consultancy support and training.
An EMS can benefit a business in many ways. For example, an EMS can help to:
- minimise the environmental liabilities of a businesses;
- maximise the efficient use of resources and make a business more efficient;
- reduce waste;
- enable businesses to demonstrate a good corporate image;
- build awareness of environmental issues amongst employees.
The BS8555 standard breaks down the process of installing a formal EMS into five phases, providing a structured and documented approach to managing a business’s environmental performance and responsibilities.
White Young Green has been appointed by emda to manage the programme, which will be delivered through events, onsite training and support. John O’Reilly, emda’s Business Support Director, said: “We’re committed to embedding consistency in Environmental Management Systems in our small businesses – particularly those working in the manufacturing, automotive, food and drink, agriculture and healthcare sectors.
“A key element of the East Midland’s Regional Economic Strategy is to make the transition to a more resource efficient and low carbon economy which represents a huge challenge for consumers and producers. This programme offers a great way for SMEs to overcome this challenge by improving their environmental performance, increase their understanding of environmental risks, reduce their operating costs and reduce waste.
Paul Sutcliffe from White Young Green added: “Systems like the British Standard 8555 have an important part to play in transforming the working practices of SMEs. This is an exciting project and we are expecting a high level of interest, so it is important that companies keen to raise their environmental performance register their interest in taking part as early as possible.”
The East Midlands Environmental Management Support Programme comes under the Business Resource Efficiency and Waste (BREW) scheme which emda manages on behalf of the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
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