An Environmental Management System helps businesses achieve a wide range of operational goals.

In today’s socially conscious business marketplace, it is crucial for companies to be mindful of the impact their operational practices could have on the environment. For example, with many businesses having their staff work from home for the past 19 months, the environmental impact, and associated costs, of travelling to and from worksites has been minimised, while conducting work meetings via Zoom has helped countless businesses reduce meeting costs, through the development of a more environmentally friendly operations. Through the implementation of an Environmental Management System (EMS), companies can develop a holistic approach to environmentally friendly practices, ensuring that every aspect of their operations is conducted in a socially conscious, environmentally friendly manner. This article will discuss the key benefits that an Environmental Management System can bring to companies.

ISO 14001 certification is a commitment to socially sustainable business practices

The internationally recognised ISO 14001 Environmental Management System is a business management system that helps companies develop comprehensive, environmentally friendly practices. The driving principle behind ISO 14001is that organisations should continually develop and refine their operational practices to ensure they are operating in an environmentally friendly, efficient manner, that they are meeting their environmental obligations and, through routine audits, continually reviewing their processes to ensure everything is operating in the most environmentally efficient manner.

One of the key benefits of these standards is that they are applicable to companies from all different industries, and of all shapes and sizes, everything from local, family-owned businesses to large national corporations. Further, through the development of environmentally friendly work practices, companies are not only showing their commitment to socially sustainable practices, they are also working at minimising expenses through the reduction of unnecessary overheads.

Here are some more ways an EMS can help businesses reduce expenditure, through delivering a more efficient, streamlined service experience:

• Overall cost reduction through clearer control of expenses: An EMS helps businesses conduct internal audits of their operations to identify inefficient procedures, convoluted processes, unnecessary touchpoints in business transactions, and so on. Businesses can use these Standards as a guide for developing a more holistic operations, reducing overhead costs, and so on.
• Identifying cheaper, more efficient processes: Most businesses will have noticed a significant change to their operations since the pandemic started. Many meetings are now conducted online, many work documents are only circulated electronically rather than by hardcopy, and many business transaction processes have been significantly simplified, to provide a more streamlined service. An EMS can help with this, by identifying inefficient processes and implementing more streamlined ones in their place.
• Avoid having to pay expensive non-compliance fines: Businesses across Australia must comply with relevant regulatory standards, to ensure they are behaving in an environmentally friendly manner, not polluting or spilling dangerous substances into their local area, and so on. Depending on the industry and size of an operations, and the extent of damage caused, fines can be extremely expensive, and many smaller businesses may struggle to pay them. ISO 14001 certification helps businesses develop compliant, straight-forward processes to meet their legal obligations, which not only demonstrates to the wider community that they are a socially conscious company, it can also help keep their expenses down.
• Demonstrate a commitment to efficient, socially sustainable practices: With the pandemic still ongoing within Australia, many potential customers are particularly concerned about what companies to make purchases from. In this extremely challenging business marketplace, with many consumers reluctant to give business to a company, ISO 14001 certification helps organisations distinguish themselves from their competitors. By demonstrating a commitment to socially sustainable business practices, you are increasing the chances of potential customers choosing your business.

Regardless of the particular environmental challenges your business is experiencing, ISO 14001 certification can help your operations overcome them. Through auditing of your existing operational processes, the identification of inefficiencies and the development of more effective alternative processes, an EMS can help your business become a socially sustainable company, a more cost-effective operations, and a leading industry player.

Our specialist consultants can help with this process

After reading this article you may have some questions about the specifics of the implementation process, how they can be applied to your operations, what control measures are implemented to ensure everything runs smoothly, and so on.

Please contact our specialist consultants today by email at sales@anitechgroup.com or by phone on 1300 802 163 for a brief, obligation-free consultation. All you need to do is tell them a bit about your business, including its industry, size, and some of the environmental challenges it is looking to address, and they will be able to discuss with you how the implementation of an EMS can help your business overcome them. They will be able to walk you through the process, and address all your queries. Following this, they can talk you through the ISO 14001 certification process, and help your business get started on it, and thus take the first steps towards being a more efficient, effective, competitive industry player. Doesn’t that sound like it would be of benefit to your own work environment?

Please click here to read more about why many businesses are implementing an Environmental Management System.