Case studies

Horizon Specialist Contracting

ISO14001 Environmental Standard

Established in 1993 and employing 29 people, Horizon Specialist Contracting in Epperstone, Nottinghamshire are steeplejacks committed to providing innovative approaches to difficult access problems when working at height. They are now the first member of ATLAS, the Association of Technical Lighting and Access Specialists, to become fully ISO14001 accredited.

The company’s activities include designing, inspecting and installing fall restraint systems to British and European Standards, inspecting, repairing and painting industrial chimneys and flues, and rope access inspections and surveys. It undertakes projects regionally, nationally and internationally. It is important to Horizon that they understand the environmental implications of their activities and what they should do if, for example, there is a spillage of paints, solvents or chemicals.

Recent projects include designing and installing a system to allow for the safe removal of the complete roofing membrane at St Pancras Station, erecting new advertising hoards at Nottingham Forest’s Trent End, and the inspection and remedials to a 41mtr high Steam Exhaust Stack at a Steel Works in the north of England. Their work can take them from highly populated environments to remote areas meaning that they need to be able to deal with a very wide range of environmental issues.

Responsible Solutions Limited worked with Horizon to help produce an environmental management system to meet the requirements of ISO 14001, providing:

• An initial environmental review,
• Procedural development,
• Internal audit and,
• Environmental awareness training.

Louise Kerry-Arms, Horizon’s Sales and Marketing Director, said that Responsible Solutions’ input had been crucial to the system’s installation and to Horizon achieving IS014001 within a very tight timescale.

“Our situation was quite unusual in that we’d secured European funding to finance our EMS but on the condition that the system was in place within a set time period.

“We would have found it extremely difficult to implement our EMS without external expert advice but Responsible Solutions came up with a system tailored to the specific needs of our business and advised us on exactly what was required.”

The environmental management system has enabled Horizon to gain a number of benefits:

• Increased confidence that it will be competitive in securing work through the tender process;
• Greater understanding of how the variety of services and products they provide have an impact on environments from school campuses to oil refineries;
• Confidence that they can remain compliant with environmental legislation.

“We have just secured a large new contract in the North of England. Although we are not yet fully aware of the environmental elements of this work, we can now be completely confident we have all the procedures in place to address these aspects.”

Louise Kerry-Arms, sales and marketing director, Horizon Specialist Contracting, Epperstone, Nottinghamshire.

Interfuse Limited

Environmental Management System and Virtual Environmental Manager

Interfuse Limited is a manufacturer of precast masonry blocks with manufacturing plants in Syston and Gainsborough.  It was established in 1965 and employs 32 people.  The company is increasingly  again supplying blocks for housing projects and also supplies the developers of commercial buildings such as supermarkets and shopping centres as well as schools, hospital and prisons.

Responsible Solutions Limited began working with Interfuse in 2009 to help produce an environmental management system to meet the requirements of ISO 14001, a standard which is increasingly being required in the building sector, particularly for house builders who are aiming to fulfil the sustainability requirements of Code 3.

Interfuse managing director, Russell Pytches, said “The Code, which is essentially a green tick box, covers everything from solar energy in new homes to allowing space for a home office.  Not every block supplier holds the ISO standard but by using a company which does have it, house builders receive points towards the code.”
ISO 14001 certification was achieved in August 2009.

The environmental management system has enabled Interfuse to gain a number of benefits:

• Increased competitiveness in its sector;
• Reduced waste in the manufacturing process and, consequently, reduced costs;
• Confidence that they can remain compliant with environmental legislation.

Responsible Solutions is continuing to support Interfuse through our Virtual Environment Manager service.

“We would have struggled to gain our ISO without the help and guidance of Responsible Solutions Ltd. and we feel fortunate that such expertise is available to us locally.”
Russell Pytches, managing director, Interfuse

Brett Martin Daylight Systems

Brett Martin Daylight Systems approached Responsible Solutions to help them improve and demonstrate their environmental performance through development of an Environmental Management System (EMS).

As a manufacturer of GRP, PVC and polycarbonate rooflight systems, they already had an ISO9001:2000 Quality Management System but had been asked by a major client to demonstrate their environmental performance. With the help of De Montford University, Brett Martin had already shown the energy efficiency and other environmental aspects of their products but needed assistance to demonstrate the performance of their internal business activities.

Brett Martin manufactures their products from two adjacent factory buildings in Coventry and employs around 150 people on the site. As a company with culture of being quick, responsive and flexible, they were looking for a system that would be straightforward to implement and easily adapted to their own needs.

The company selected Responsible Solutions to help through the development of a system which saw them achieving ISO14001 at their first assessment. Ian Middleton, Quality Systems Manager at Brett Martin said, “We don’t pay for suits, we pay for expertise, so as a small yet highly reputable environmental consultancy, Responsible Solutions and their associates were a great choice, something that was supported by the quality of the references they were able to provide.”

Responsible Solutions supported the development and implementation of the EMS with training for management and supervisors. The system has been integrated into Brett Martin’s everyday working practices in such a way that it does not require excessive management time to be devoted to the system for the system’s sake. Rather the EMS works well for Brett Martin Daylight Systems.

Since achieving the ISO14001 standard, Brett Martin has experienced no external non-conformities. In fact, their EMS proved very useful when they had a spot check by the Environment Agency to look at their chemical storage & waste management. Ian Middleton was able to impress them by being able to instantly access the documentation they wanted to see, including the Waste Management Exemption clause 27 for waste compaction and various waste transfer notes. The Environment Agency were able to give Brett Martin a full clean bill of health.

Similarly, when the Fire Brigade were updating their information on the site, which has 100+ tonnes of flammable resin in site, Brett Martin were able to quickly supply them with all the information they required, such as the drainage plan showing interceptors, etc. Ian Middleton said “Our EMS helped give the Fire Brigade confidence that we are in control of our situation, not just being reactive to it.”

In summary, the benefits for Brett Martin Daylight Systems of working with Responsible Solutions have been the development of a system that has been simple to implement; the achievement of ISO14001; and the confidence of knowing that they have had no external non-compliance issues since.

East Midlands Construction Resource Efficiency Club

During 2006 Responsible Solutions Ltd in partnership with EMCBE, ran the first construction specific resource efficiency club funded by Envirowise. The core aim of the club was to promote the benefits of resource efficiency to construction companies based in the East Midlands and as a result divert waste away from landfill and improve the reuse and recycling of waste.

The club had 10 core members during its first year which represented a varied group of construction contractors who are active within the East Midlands. These members received one to one support and advice throughout the year which was tailored to suit their specific needs as well as access to a number of workshops.

The club’s members are currently implementing actions to deliver savings in excess of £220,000. Further to this, if these actions are rolled out from the site to encompass the whole of the organisation, across all core members, savings in excess of £2.5M could be achieved. Examples of actions taken by these organisations included, waste segregation and minimisation initiatives, plasterboard recycling, buying bespoke plasterboard, pallet take-back schemes and water minimisation initiatives to name just a few!

Activities offered by the club:

• One-site Site Waste Management Plan Workshops
• Tailored Toolbox Talks
• On-site Best Practice Planning meetings
• Environmental Legislation Workshops

Membership of the club helped focus attention, within the organisation, on resource efficiency and sustainability. As a result of their membership a number of core members have undoubtedly improved their general environmental awareness and as a result this has translated into their organisations. Further to this, two organisations that previously did not have ISO 14001 have begun to implement the system within their organisation with the hope of achieving full certification during 2007.

Other organisations involved during this year included, Wastecycle Ltd and the National Green Specification.