Resource Efficiency East

It is widely acknowledged that small businesses looking to improve resource efficiency will often benefit from adopting an environmental management system (EMS). An EMS can help a company identify cost saving opportunities, ensure compliance with relevant legislation, meet the requirements of key customers and reduce the organisations impact on the environment.

 However, more often than not, small businesses will lack the background knowledge, understanding or time to implement such a system unaided. In order to address some of these issues the Resource Efficiency East programme has developed The EMS Club to assist eligible small businesses who are looking to develop an EMS for the first time.

 The EMS Club will assist businesses to understand and implement an environmental management system in a methodical, concise and staged manner, in line with recognised standards such as BS8555 and ISO14001, through a series of workshops designed to encourage knowledge exchange and peer-to-peer networking.

The workshop programme will be run in line with the six phases of the BS8555 standard for the implementation of an environmental management system. There will be ten workshops in total, one each month from March 2010 to January 2011 (excluding December 2010). Each workshop will run for approximately 2½ to 3 hours and lunch will be provided afterwards to allow delegates additional opportunities to network with fellow participants in The EMS Club

 1.   An Introduction to Environmental Management

 2.   Environmental Policy and Environmental Performance Indicators

 3.   Legal and Other Requirements

 4.   Checking and Ongoing Legal Compliance

 5.   Developing Objectives, Targets and Programmes Part 1

 6.   Developing Objectives, Targets and Programmes Part 2

 7.   Implementation and Operation of the EMS Part 1

 8.   Implementation and Operation of the EMS Part 2

 9.   Internal Audit and Management Review

 10. Continual Improvement and an Introduction to ISO 14001 and EMAS

 The workshop sessions will be a mixture of lecture style learning, individual and group exercises, as well as open discussion between the facilitators and delegates about best practice and how to tackle key issues and barriers.

 As well as the workshop programme each participating business in The EMS Club will be able to sign-up for a 1-2-1 site visit aimed at assisting your business with the process of adopting an EMS. The full details of this support will be presented at the first workshop, but, in brief, it includes;

•  A site visit to conduct an initial review of your business in terms of what needs to be achieved to fully implement an EMS
• A short report summarising the key findings of the site visit 
• Ongoing ‘arms length’ support via telephone and email

In total 2 days of support is available through the 1-2-1 service and the exact scope of the support is, within reason, flexible to the needs of the individual organisation.

As part of The EMS Club participating businesses will also receive a detailed set of support materials designed to assist you implement an EMS and take forward the ideas that are introduced as part of the workshop programme.

These materials will include;

• A guidance workbook to help implement an effective EMS
• Register of Environmental Legislation
• A number of support documents/templates to assist with the development of key documents required for an EMS.

 The EMS Club will be delivered via four sub-regional ‘hubs’ across the East of England. The four locations are;

          HUB 1: Norwich, Norfolk

          HUB 2: St Neots, Cambridgeshire

          HUB 3: Chelmsford, Essex

          HUB 4: Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

 For more details on The EMS Club contact the programme team on 01733 294 524 or visit http://www.resourceefficiencyeast.org.uk/the-ems-club.asp