ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Arising from the STEM project , Ards Borough Council now has an ISO 14001 accredited Environmental Management System in place in order to control the environmental impacts of its activities.

What is an Environmental Management System?

An Environmental Management System (EMS) is a management tool that allows an organisation to assess and control the environmental impact of its activities, products and services.

The Benefits

Evidence indicates that an EMS can save businesses money by helping them be more resource efficient and providing them with a management tool to control their organisations environmental impacts. Benefits include:

 Cost savings

 Customer perception

 New markets

 Legal awareness/compliance

 Staff involvement/motivation

 Environmental improvements

With environmental issues very much to the fore the requirement for businesses to have an EMS is sure to increase over the coming years.

Ards Borough Council leading the way!

Ards Borough Council is leading the way by committing to improve its own environmental performance and in May 2006 received certification to the internationally recognised environmental standard ISO 14001:2004. Subsequent reassessments of our compliance with the criteria were carried out on November 2006, October 2007, October 2008, November 2011 and yet again the Council was found to be maintaining the required standards.

The Council has implemented systems to try to reduce the amount of waste it produces and the amount of fuel it uses, resulting in a reduction in the impact the Council has on the environment.

Examples include:

• Since the system started in 2006, the Council has reduced the amount of waste produced by its Church Street administrative offices by 15% and has increased the percentage of its waste being recycled by 13% to 66% waste recycled in 2010/2011.

As well as paper recycling, the Council offices also recycle envelopes, bottles, tetra-paks and bottles as well as having a kitchen caddy in the staff kitchen for food waste and teabags.

• Automatic lights have been installed in a number of sites to ensure lights are not left on unnecessarily and therefore wasting energy.

• The routes the refuse collection vehicles use are continually reviewed to ensure vehicles are taking the shortest route and therefore minimising the amount of fuel being used. Vehicle fuel use by the Council has decreased over the last 2 years, with a decrease of 1% in 2009/2010 from 2008/2009 and a 4% decrease in fuel use in 2010/2011 from 2009/2010.

Environmental Policy Leaflet February 2010