Business News
St Ives Web Achieves ISO 14001 Accreditation in Just Four Months
Tuesday 22. January 2008 - All St Ives plc divisions to achieve ISO 14001 accreditation by the end of 2008
St Ives Web, the magazine printing division of St Ives plc, has been awarded ISO 14001 accreditation across all its five sites, just four months after commencing its application process.
As part of St Ives commitment to reducing its environmental impact and achieving ISO 14001 across the entire group by the end of 2008, the internationally recognised accreditation will enable St Ives Web to produce and deliver products to customers in the most cost efficient, environmentally responsible manner.
“We believe that this accreditation and the speed of its introduction, is clear demonstration of our conformance and dedication to environmental best practices and our commitment to customers,” comments Mark Geary from St Ives HR team.
“Achieving the accreditation in just four months would not have been possible without the full buy-in from each of our sites, and commitment from all staff and colleagues. We were also helped by having existing policies and procedures in place, that exceeded some of the ISO 9001 requirements.”
St Ives Web achieved the ISO 9001 quality standard 15 years ago, and has since been monitoring supplier performance and its supply chain on a continual basis. The division has reduced the energy used in its processes to become better at manufacturing, continuing to provide the highest quality products to customers. St Ives continual commitment to investing in the best technology also played a part, as St Ives Web continues to reduce its VOC emissions (Volatile Organic Compounds) and improve its carbon management.
“Over the last few years we have invested in technology for its best performance in quality, production, substrate and energy consumption,” continues Mark. “We are committed to reducing our emissions on an ongoing basis and environmental performance is an additional criteria for our suppliers, so we can offer our customers a more environmentally friendly production method. We now have a dedicated team that keeps us focused on the environment on a monthly basis, and we are working towards FSC and PEFC accreditation, which we will achieve across all the web divisions sites this year.”
During its financial year from July 2006-July 2007, St Ives plc continued to minimise the environmental impacts of its business. Key achievements included reducing waste by 9.0 percent, reducing water consumption by 3.3 percent and improving energy efficiency by 0.64 percent. St Ives plc has also signed up to the Carbon Trusts Carbon Management programme in order to maximise energy efficiency and reduce its carbon footprint.
“By the end of 2008 each St Ives division and all sites will be ISO14001 certified. We also intend to work towards FSC Chain of Custody certification across all our sites where paper or board are the principle substrates used,” says Geoff Court, health, safety and environmental adviser, St Ives plc.
According to Forum for the Future(1), printing has the lowest take-up of environmental policies for any major industry, however this is not the case at St Ives. The St Ives board has established an environmental policy that concentrates on achieving deliverable improvements in performance through consultation with suppliers, customers and employees.
“Specific areas targeted for continuous attention include the adoption of processes to reduce the Groups emissions of volatile organic compounds, noise and dust, minimising and recycling of waste products, recycling of water and securing reductions in energy consumption,” continues Geoff. “The Group has made good progress towards improving its performance in these areas.”