Many companies are recognising that the environment is a management issue not a matter of compliance with tougher and tighter legislation or avoidance of adverse publicity.
An Environmental Management System (EMS) provides a practical framework for dealing with issues of waste and impact.
Companies can set up their own procedures to use as internal management tools or they can use one of the recognised national and international standards, such as ISO14001 or the EC’s Eco-Management and Audit Scheme, that will provide accreditation and external recognition of the standards achieved.
Merseyside
UK garment-rental sector market-leader, Johnsons Apparelmaster, recently achieved accreditation for its environmental management system introduced at its headquarters site in Bootle. Johnsons is a major employer in the Merseyside region.
The scheme not only brings the company in line with the requirements of some of its major customers but has also proved to be self-financing, limiting waste or in some cases eliminating it. The EMS certificate, ISO14001 was presented by John Kirkham of the British Standards Institution.
Johnsons’ technical director, Martin Gregson, said the company had spent more than a year focusing on the impact the business activities had on the environment and then taking a pro-active and responsible approach to the management of those issues.
“We identified areas that needed stricter operational controls and introduced projects such as waste minimisation programmes that have reduced or eliminated waste. These have included schemes to recycle coat-hangers and reduce the number of rewashes. “Many of our customers hold ISO14001 certification and they demand that their suppliers including their workwear provider shows a similar sense of responsibility.”
Johnsons hired consultant Keith Webster of Enviros to assist in putting the management systems in place. He explained that an EMS was more than an engineering exercise, although the installation of the right equipment was important. It introduces a comprehensive approach to dealing with environmental issues.
Johnsons’ chief executive Richard Zerny claimed that an environmental management system imposes good discipline on any company that installs it.
“It is also self-financing as it has saved us money by bringing down costs. It certainly is not compulsory to have one but many of our major customers, such as the supermarkets, expect us to have the accreditation and I think we will see this as an ever increasing demand.
“We could have introduced these new disciplines and procedures into the business off our own bat but going for environmental management system accreditation has been the catalyst to not only introduce effective cost-control but to change the way we do things, right across the business.
“And simply changing the way we manage the business would not have given us the same credence with our customers as the BSI accreditation has.
“ To get the accreditation it was essential that the commitment comes from the top. We have seventeen sites and there is a team at every one of them. They are tasked with the job of attaining accreditation. It is very much a top down thing.
“Our business will benefit from the installation of best practice and there are benefits to be had from every branch doing things in the same way but the ultimate goal is customer satisfaction.
“When we bought Semara they did not have the same disciplines or methods that we had but they were not so outlandish that they could not adapt their systems to ours. In time they will have the same accreditation as the rest of the Johnson Group.
The Group has a close knit management team and a structure that will ensure that best practice is transferred from one site to another. It already compares site performances and has its own league tables.”
“There is a healthy internal competition between site managers” says Peter Robinson, md Johnsons Apparelmaster. “We have ten key parameters that we monitor, not only sales and costs, but things such as customer retention, productivity, stock life and stock in customers’ premises.
“The recent exercise has involved all our people at all levels with ideas being volunteered from the shop floor up. Issues such as wastage have been tackled, with people taking an interest in how materials are used not just how we dispose of them. Our EMS has even reduced the paperwork.
“The current accreditation is for the Bootle site but all our factories in the UK are going through a similar re-organisation and all seventeen should be accredited with ISO14001 by next year. It is the same as when the company achieved BS5750 and Investors in People, best practice throughout the group.”
Introducing new ideas and new ways of working is never easy.
“The biggest hurdle to getting the environmental management systems in place has been communication” says Richard Zerny. “Getting the message of what we were trying to achieve down to the shop floor took time.
Trade Union
“As with all businesses the problem is communication. What may sound obvious and common sense still needs to be explained clearly at all levels to all people.
“The Bootle factory is a trade union site, organised by the Transport and General Workers Union. Once we explained what we were aiming for with the EMS we have had total co-operation from the Union.”
At shop floor level every section had a team representative whom they could get information from and to whom they could put their suggestions.
“And we had lots of good ideas coming up from the shop floor” said Richard Zerny.
“ The environmental management system that is now in place is just another part of the Johnsons service philosophy, a philosophy that is moving the company forward, ultimately it is customer service that is all important.”
The company was established in 1780, and today, the Johnson Group has 24 textile rental plants and 530 drycleaning branches throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland.
