Environmental policies are becoming the norm in business these days.
Rather than being another bureaucratic burden, we believe they show evidence of both concern and creative business management that provides benefits to the environment, the company, its employees and customers.
Environmental policies are not yet compulsory in the United Kingdom and therefore are not regulated. Environmental policies are however being adopted by all professional businesses and this in turn will require their partners to adopt these standards. Having an environmental policy is essential if a company wants to implement an environmental management standard, such as the European Union Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS), BS 8555 or ISO 14001.
Policies can be very extensive in content and address many different and varied areas of business. Clearly different businesses have different concerns, but certain elements have high commonality and may be considered immediately:
- Management and monitoring of waste -Reduction of pollution and emissions
- Compliance with environmental legislation
- Monitoring of environmental performance
Not only are implementation of policies ethically correct but also address areas of business that can improve staff moral, profitability and efficiency. In addition the governments of the world are promoting cohesive movement of action with financial incentives to implement serious policies.
Serving Science promotes ethical management of resources and includes these details in all suppliers advertising and listings. In a service business, addressing fuel consumption and scheduling of workloads and tasks can positively impact a business.
Scientists and laboratories in turn are expected to address these issues and therefore their suppliers should be conversant in the subject and monitor and improve their own policies.
We have also provided a number of useful company contacts who can assist in helping companies develop their own policies.
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