ISO 14001 is an internationally accepted standard that sets out how you can go about putting in place an effective Environmental Management System (EMS). The standard is designed to address the delicate balance between maintaining profitability and reducing environmental impact; with the commitment of your entire organization, it can enable you to achieve both objectives.

ISO 14001 includes the following:
· General requirements
· Environmental policy
· Planning implementation and operation
· Checking and corrective action
· Management review

This means that we can identify aspects of our business that impact on the environment and understand those environmental laws that are relevant to our situation.

At OPS our next step is to produce objectives for improvement and a management programme to achieve them, with regular reviews for continual improvement. We can then periodically assess the system and, if compliant, register our company to ISO 14001.

Who is it relevant to?
Environmental impact is becoming an increasingly important issue across the globe, with pressure to minimize that impact coming from a number of sources: local and national governments, regulators, trade associations, customers, employees and shareholders. Social pressures are also building up from the growing array of interested parties, such as consumer, environmental and minority non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academia and neighbours.

This is why at OPS we have undertaken to achieve this environmental standard.

The benefits to our company:
Certifying our company's environmental management system to ISO 14001 means that any third party, such as BSI, can assess that it meets the requirements set out in the standard.

Certification to ISO 14001 allows us to:

· Demonstrate our commitment to achieving legal and regulatory compliance to regulators and government
· Demonstrate our environmental commitment to stakeholders
· Demonstrate an innovative and forward thinking approach to customers and prospective employees
· Increase our access to new customers and business partners
· Better manage our environmental risks, now and in the future
· Potentially reduce public liability insurance costs
· Enhance our reputation