“We have achieved Diamond Level Enviro-Mark® Certification”

Being part of the Enviro-Mark® program and having recently progressed from Bronze to Gold Certification and now to Diamond in a very short time is evidence of our ongoing Environmental commitment to our New Zealand operations.

Enviro–Mark Diamond is the final step in the Environmental Management System journey. WasteCo identified the significant environmental impacts arising from everything we do and then developed plans to prevent or reduce those impacts.

This helped identify environmental impacts of every aspect of our operation and supported us in managing those impacts. Certification will help WasteCo meet tender requirements, satisfy stakeholder demands, ensure legislative compliance, demonstrate good corporate citizenship, identify and manage risks, develop business efficiencies, achieve cost savings and gain market access.

The Enviro-Mark Environmental Management programme is now a three-step journey to improved environmental performance with a focus on continuous improvement as companies work from Bronze to Diamond level. At Enviro-Mark Diamond level, member companies are recognised as having an ongoing measurable environmental improvement programme. Enviro-Mark Diamond, the final step, is equivalent to ISO 14001. Every year, performance is assessed through an independent audit to ensure your result is accurate and complete and allow you to credibly market your credentials with confidence.

The certification programme is owned and operated by Landcare Research’s wholly owned subsidiary Enviro-Mark Solutions Limited.

WasteCo NZ Limited has successfully completed the annual audit requirements of Enviro-Mark® Diamond certification. 

The key elements and achievements for Toitū enviromark diamond certification are that you:

• Have established, implemented and maintained Document Control processes
• Have suitable processes in place to manage records
• Carry out planned and suitably conducted Internal audits to ensure the EMS conforms to legal, voluntary and the company’s own requirements
• Periodically conduct a Management Review to ensure the EMS is or continues to be suitable, adequate and effective
• Have provided the Resources, Roles and Responsibilities required for establishing, implementing, maintaining, and improving the EMS including the appointment of an EMS representative
• Have established, implemented and maintained Communication processes for internal and external communications relevant to the EMS
• Have put processes in place to ensure that persons working for the company have the appropriate Competence, Training, and awareness of EMS requirements and are not likely to cause a significant environmental Impact
• Have effective Operational Control over your activities, products and services so that they are being effectively managed and are unlikely to cause a significant environmental impact
• Have Non-conformance and Corrective Action processes in place to take suitable, adequate and effective action when there are deficiencies or unwanted events
• Have identified and established Objectives, Targets, and KPIs
• Have implemented and maintained Environmental Programmes to address significant environmental aspects
• Have processes are in place to Monitor significant environmental aspects
• Have Emergency Preparedness and Response processes in place to prepare for and respond to potential emergency situations
• Have processes for Evaluation of compliance which assess and correct compliance issues to ensure ongoing compliance.
• Have Environmental Programmes in place to comply with legal and other requirements
• Have determined the Context and Scope of your Organisation
• Can demonstrate Leadership and Commitment by Top Management in allocating appropriate personnel and resources to the EMS.

Besides this achievement we have also achieved   and , and all our Safety documents are  ISNetworld

Why ISO 14001: The environmental context now is challenging, we see a lot of difficult discussions on Climate Change, we see a lot of discussions on the challenges for organizations meet expectations from policy makers related to water utilization,  related to energy usage, these are big challenges, challenges that are reflected as well in the views of stakeholders, of shareholders, the expectation that organizations will Stewart the environment and perform according to what they believe is appropriate in a modern organization, and these types of changes were very much taken into consideration by the committee that developed the new 14001.

Why is the standard so important:  it’s a tool that supports advancement, that supports continual improvement, the standard itself has gained recognition through use in organizations as the self-improvement tool, it’s also gained prominence through third party recognition through certification where there are now more than 300,000 certificates for 14001 globally, a sign of its impact, a sign of its uptake.

For users of these standards, what are the main benefits: Benefits of the 14001 standard are a away for organizations to help meet their legal requirements, that’s certainly very important and to also go beyond, and to take measures that are in keeping with the expectations of our stakeholders of our shareholders, it’s also an organized way to get employees engaged on meeting environmental commitments, finally it also is a competitive advantage, the use of ISO14001 is something that can be used as a distinguisher from other organizations.  And even in many cases provide some financial advantage of the organization realizing certain efficiencies and improved performance.

Who is behind the standard: More than 70 participating ISO members actively contributing time of their experts, their nominated experts to provide insight and draft the new 14001, it involved more than 120 people.

 What are the main changes: The new version of ISO-14001 has 7 specific changes. or should we say the most common ones to talk about, are:

1. Environmental Management as part of the strategy – The enhanced focus on integrating environmental issues into the strategic planning process of an organisation.
2. Leadership – There is a stronger focus on leadership and the demands of leadership in an organisation to involved In these issues.
3. Protecting the environment – which is increased to look at resource use and also to look at what demands may be put on the environment by the organisation.
4. The environmental performance, – which was not strong enough, it is distinctly stronger now.
5. Life Cycle Perspectives – The issue of Life Cycle perspectives is the need to think about the perspective of a life cycle when you start looking at environmental aspects and impact.
6. Better Communication – The issue of enhancing communication, thinking about how you are communicating better with your stakeholders.
7. Digital Documentation – Moving from a world where we thought everything was paper based to something that can be stored in the cloud.

The future of ISO14001 is to become the tool of choice for businesses to help them manage environmental issues in the strategic thinking action and plans.