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). However, small businesses will often lack the knowledge, understanding or time to implement such a system unaided. An environmental management system 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.

As such Resource Efficiency East Programme launched The EMS Club in 2010. The EMS Club was designed to assist businesses to understand and implement an environmental management system in a methodical, concise and staged manner through a series of workshops designed to encourage knowledge exchange and peer-to-peer networking. In addition businesses participating in The EMS Club have access to additional 'one-to-one' support to help them assess the priority areas within their organisation in terms of EMS implementation.

In 2010, REE ran two hubs of The EMS Club and 19 small businesses attended the ten-week workshop programmes held at Ickworth in Suffolk and Chelmsford in Essex.

In July 2011, a third hub was launched in Cambridge. The new workshop programme is supporting the maximum number of 15 SMES and there are no additional places available. However, due to high demand, REE is currently looking to launch a fourth hub of The EMS Club in Hertfordshire in August 2011.

Anyone interested in joining this final hub, should contact The EMS Club co-ordinator, Elizabeth Stenton as soon as possible by emailing elizabethstenton@resourceefficiencyeast.org.uk or by calling 01733 294 524.

The EMS Club offers free support that includes:

• A place at a series of five full-day EMS workshops;
• All the necessary guidance, tools and templates required to develop the required EMS documentation and records; and
• Further direct support from our EMS experts who will be able to assist with an EMS Review

An EMS enables an organisation to focus on improving its environmental performance in a structured manner, realising a host of potential business improvements, including:

• Improved efficiency of materials, water and energy use;
• Improved waste management and segregation;
• Cost savings;
• Stronger marketing credentials and improved tender performance;
• Improved staff morale through greater participation; and
• Reduced risk through a better understanding of environmental legislation and pollution risks.

Click here for a video case study about the benefits of adopting an EMS.

The EMS Club support package has been designed to follow the step-by-step approach advocated by BS8555/Acorn. Designed with smaller and medium companies in mind, the BS 8555/Acorn approach breaks the EMS implementation process down into a series of manageable 'phases'. An organisation can obtain UKAS-accredited certification after each phase, thereby demonstrating its commitment to the improvement of its environmental performance*.

The six phases are:

1. Gaining commitment and establishing the baseline;
2. Identifying and ensuring compliance with legal and other requirements;
3. Developing objectives, targets and programmes;
4. Implementation and operation of the environmental management system;
5. Checking, audit and review; and
6. Environmental management system acknowledgement, allowing companies to progress to ISO 14001 or EMAS certification

These six phases will be further broken down across the ten workshops to ensure that EMS club members can effectively manage their EMS implementation.

(*UKAS accreditation certification is not part of the support being offered by Resource Efficiency East and would the costs of this would need to be met by the individual organisation. However, those participating in The EMS Club should find themselves well placed to achieve the required standards to achieve certification if they apply the knowledge gained from participating in the programme appropriately)