Energy efficiency for business
Environmental Management Systems
An Environmental Management System (EMS) assesses your business's strengths and weaknesses and helps you identify and manage significant environmental impacts. An EMS makes you money by increasing efficiency and demonstrates your environmental credentials to your customers. It will also ensure you comply with environmental legislation avoiding a bad reputation and costly fines.
Calderdale Council adopted an EMS in 2009 and helps us to prevent pollution and improve our environmental performance. For more details see the Council's Environmental Policy and Calderdale's Environmental Management System. As we have a significant environmental impact within the community and to be fully transparent we elected for a certified EMS and are accredited to ISO14001.
A certified EMS may not be required for every business and depends on your size, sector and customer expectations. For businesses that want to demonstrate there environmental commitments but find the cost of a fully certified scheme to high, Calderdale Council in partnership with Calderdale Energy Future has developed a unique local environmental accreditation called the Environmental Business Pledge.
For more information on creating an improving your environmental performance and developing an EMS within your organisation go to Environmental Business Pledge
The following external web sites provide more information about EMS accreditation schemes:
- Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment|
The Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) is a not-for-profit organisation established to promote best practice standards in environmental management, auditing and assessment. - Eco Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS)|
EMAS is a voluntary scheme for industry introduced by the European Commission (EC) in 1993. Its aim is to promote on-going improvements in the environmental performance of companies and the provision of environmental information to the public.
A toolkit for smaller businesses is also available: Eco Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) Tools|. - BSI Global|
The National Standards Body of the UK, British Standards is among the world’s leading providers of standards and standards products. Provides detailed information on ISO 14001, the international accreditation scheme for environmental management systems. - ISO/TC207|
The International Organisation for Standardisation formed Technical Committee 207 on Environmental Management in 1993. The scope of the committee is: 'standardization in the field of environmental management tools and systems,' based on the philosophy that improving management practices is the best way to improve the environmental performance of organizations and their products. Frequently asked questions on ISO 14001.
