Time to fly the GREEN STANDARD

Through the late 1980s and early '90s many a magazine's postbag would bulge with press releases from companies bursting with pride to tell the world about their certification to BS 5750, and later ISO 9000, the quality management standard. The obvious success and widespread acceptance of the quality management concept led directly in 1992 to the introduction of the sister standard BS 7750, for environmental management systems.

Five years on, however, it has to be said that PE's postbag hasn't needed strengthening to cope with the weight of enthusiastic announcements from BS 7750 registered companies. According to the UK Accreditation Service (UKAS), at the beginning of this year there were around 400 organisations registered to BS 7750 or its international equivalent , the ISO 14000 series. But of these, less than 40 per cent are from the processing sector. Not surprisingly, the largest process industry represented is chemicals, with 14 per cent of the total - although that is half the number of the biggest industry grouping, manufacturers of electrical and optical equipment, according to the UKAS statistics.

To say then that the process industries' interest in environmental management systems (EMS) has been somewhat underwhelming is fair comment, but there are now signs of increasing awareness. According to Mark Barthel, the British Standards Institution's product manager for EMS, there has lately been `an almost exponential growth in registration for ISO 14001'. BSI is the largest of some 15 certification bodies accredited by UKAS to register companies to both EMS standards, but Barthel's view is shared by many of the others.

Rapid payback

A survey by SGS Yarsley, for example, indicated that 80 per cent of European organisations with a certified EMS found it cost-effective, with nearly half of them quoting a payback period of less than one year - compared with Barthel's estimate of around a three-year payback for implementation of quality management systems. David Powley, principal environmental auditor of another accredited certifying body, DNV Quality Assurance, believes that many companies are `lining up, ready to go' with the implementation of EMS and the seeking of registration.

One obvious reason for this incipient interest is that on 1 September this year BS 7750 will be formally superseded by the first parts of the international standard, ISO 14001 and 14004. Because Britain, through the aegis of the BSI, pioneered the development of the ISO standard through its work on BS 7750, the two standards are very similar and companies already registered to the British Standard should, say BSI, find the transfer a straightforward process.

Most of the differences stem from the adoption of a less prescriptive, more generic approach. For example, the requirement in BS 7750 for a register of regulations and of significant environmental effects is not in the ISO standard. Instead, there is an emphasis on prevention rather than cure, with a requirement for top management involvement. This may be more easily forthcoming in the light of BSI's evidence that ISO 14001 is increasingly being specified in business contracts. As with ISO 9000, suppliers to registered companies might soon have no option but to be registered themselves if they want to stay in business.

ISO 14000 is also a stepping stone to companies wanting to register individual sites under the EC's Eco-Management and Audit Scheme, EMAS. The main difference here is that EMAS requires the publication of an environmental management statement, which discloses independently-validated information on the site's environmental performance.

All of the certification bodies offer guidance and consultancy services to help companies move towards registering their environmental management systems, but BSI last month launched what almost amounts to a do-it-yourself software kit for developing an EMS. Called the Electronic Manager, it helps companies going for ISO 14000 to `assess, develop, evaluate and revise their complete environment management system'.

The background to the package dates back to 1992 when the systems company Intelex Technologies bought the rights to the software code for Union Carbide's environmental health and safety system. In 1994 Intelex used this to develop an off-the-shelf package, AIMS for BS 7750, which is the predecessor to the Electronic Manager for ISO 14001 jointly developed with BSI last year.

In its various development forms, the package is already in use in over 100 organisations, including chemical companies such as Akzo Nobel, Ciba Clayton (see page 21), Contract Chemicals and Monsanto.

Available on disc for Windows at £995 plus VAT, the Electronic Manager gives the user structured help in building an EMS; closer management control, by automatically identifying non-compliances within the system; and automated documentation.

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