The amount of interest in ISO14001 and environmental certifications continues to grow all the time. In a wholly unscientific bit of analysis, we noticed that enquiries to us about helping companies either achieve certification for the 1st time or simplify how they manage their ISO14001 processes with Mango QHSE rose over 150% from 2022, that's pretty encouraging!
If you didn't know already, ISO 14001 the international standard for environmental management systems that is designed to provide a framework for organisations to implement and maintain sustainable practices. Everyone knows more sustainable practices are a good thing, not just because frankly being more sustainable is the right thing to do but because it directly adds to your business in terms of reputation, employee engagement and also your bottom line. That's right, done correctly ISO14001 improves your bottom-line numbers, for some that may take a little time to flow through, but it's there, you just need to measure it!
If you're wondering whether your company should implement ISO 14001, here are our top 10 reasons why it's a great idea:
- Reduce Environmental Impact: By implementing ISO 14001, companies can reduce their environmental impact by identifying areas of inefficiency, waste, and emissions, and creating plans to mitigate them. Tracing CO2 impact for instance is really important, you can do it in many ways, Mango's QHSE software for example allows you to capture the CO2 impact of all of your Plant & Equipment by just recording how often you use them, for example, just record the run hours on the pump, the kilometres on your truck or the operating hours of your building and you can instantly run a report on the CO2 impact and know here to focus your energy reduction program. That reduction in inefficiency and waste goes directly to your bottom line.
- Improve Resource Efficiency: Implementing ISO 14001 encourages companies to reduce their resource consumption, such as water and energy, which can lead to cost savings and a smaller carbon footprint. Part of that is also ensuring that you have an efficient system to manage your environmental management system in one place that people will use such as Mango.
- Increase Efficiency and Reduce Waste: By identifying areas of inefficiency and waste, companies can streamline their processes, reduce costs, and improve overall efficiency.
- Improve Compliance with Environmental Regulations: ISO 14001 helps companies to ensure that they are compliant with environmental regulations, reducing the risk of fines and penalties. In Mango you have multiple tools to help you do that, you can list all the environmental requirements in your compliance module, record environmental incidents and how you manage them in your Environmental incident module and of course understand your business environmental risks in the Risk module, and they all talk with each other to avoid duplication.
- Enhance Reputation: Implementing ISO 14001 demonstrates a company's commitment to sustainability and can enhance its reputation among customers, other stakeholders, and employees. Taking a more environmentally sustainable approach also enhances your relationship with your neighbours, if your noise levels, pollution, resources uses are less they know about it! (Especially if you let them know what you are doing!)
- Competitive Advantage: Companies that implement ISO 14001 can differentiate themselves from their competitors, gaining a competitive advantage and potentially attracting more customers, you may not be able to charge more but you are more likely to move through the qualification process and increases the chances of landing projects, especially with government or council agencies.
- Increase Employee Engagement: Think of the benefits of explain why you are going to be reducing your environmental impacts to your team, giving them an opportunity to research more environmentally friendly options and local activities you can support they get invested in what you are doing. By involving employees in the implementation and maintenance of ISO 14001, you will increase employee engagement and motivation, leading to a more positive work environment.
- Enhance Supply Chain Management: Implementing ISO 14001 can help companies to manage their supply chain more effectively by ensuring that suppliers and partners are also committed to sustainable practices. Admittedly this can be trick and tends to take longer, in some areas you may find you need to change supplier to one more aligned to your new focus. The result however should be working with an organisation who is equally committed to continually improve their sustainability which ultimately leads to lower costs. You can track your suppliers environmental impact simply by asking them, (some more frequently than others!) and capture this directly to your Mango system using the Assessments module and logging it to your supplier record which also records any environmental incidents your supplier has been involved in. Reviewing your supplier's environmental impact should be an on going process as part of your supply chain management system.
- Risk Management: By identifying and mitigating environmental risks, companies can reduce the likelihood of environmental incidents that could damage their reputation or result in costly fines and penalties. Recording those risks and monitoring them doesn't have to be tricky, Mango's Risk Management Module allows you to track all the environmental risks in one place identifying them at an organisational, branch or even department level. For companies with multiple worksites such as construction companies you can easily understand and so control the environmental risks on each work site, tracking and managing any environmental issues with the inbuilt Environmental Incident module.
- Continual Improvement: ISO 14001 requires companies to continually monitor and improve their environmental performance, ensuring that they are always striving for sustainability and efficiency.
Why wait to implement 14001?
Implementing ISO 14001 can take some time and needs to be an organisational with approach, but it brings numerous benefits, including reduced environmental impact, improved resource efficiency, enhanced reputation, and increased employee engagement. By committing to sustainability and continual improvement, companies can gain a competitive advantage and position themselves as leaders in their industry. How you choose to implement ISO14001 is up to you, but you should consider the benefits of implementing a fully integrated solution such as Mango, which reduces the compliance overhead and makes it easy for your team to manage your system effectively.
So why wait? Start your journey to sustainable practices today by implementing ISO 14001!