Business quality & environmental management
Having robust quality and environmental management systems ensures that we’ve got the appropriate procedures and documentation in place to manage our environmental and social impacts and the risks associated with them. Throughout our business we hold a number of certifications to both ISO14001 and ISO9001 for specific business activities and processes. Our regulated water business, and our gas, Welsh and Scottish water and wastewater operations all hold the ISO14001 environmental management standard. Our electricity services business is seeking to obtain this standard by the end of 2009. Internationally, the importance of the role that environmental management systems play in driving performance and meeting compliance is also recognised. Our activities in Australia and Tallinn Estonia are both certified to ISO14001 and our operations in Sofia Bulgaria achieved the standard in December 2008.
A review of environmental management is taking place in 2009 – initially within our UK operations, but with the intention of expanding the scope to include our international operations during 2010. The principal aims of this review are:
- To get an up-to-date understanding of our environmental practices, including a detailed review of relevant documentation
- Establish areas of duplication and recommend merging documentation within different business areas to improve efficiency
- Identify best practice both within our organisation and throughout the world
- Actions and recommendations to establish our environmental management as world class
A key driver for embedding high standards of environment and quality management is the implementation of our Corporate Responsibility (CR) Policy, which outlines our commitment to economic, environmental, social and ethical issues. Our CR Policy is endorsed by our Chief Executive and was approved in March 2009. This policy covers all of our activities, both within the UK and abroad, and ensures that all our operational activities embed the same core values and principles.
The environmental management review will use the CR Policy as its focal point to establish if and how the core values and principles of the company are being embedded.