Environmental Programmes

Setting environmental objectives is getting easier by the day.   With Government Initiatives raising overall awareness, even Financial Directors are asking how we can reduce the Carbon Footprint of the company.

Also many organisations have heard of SMART objectives so we now know to make any objective for our system specific, measurable and time bound.

The real problem is that environmental objectives are a bit like a Gym Membership – signed up too hastily in January by everyone and then not re-visited for at least another 6 months…

But remember ISO 14001 requires that you have a programme for your objectives including a ‘means and a time frame’.  

As we are often setting objectives at this time of year, it is worth getting an effective programme set up at the same time to make sure that all objectives are prioritised and given the right resources to be successful from the start.

Objectives, targets and programmes…
Once you have decided on your ‘SMART’ objective break this down into a brief project plan.   Also make sure that resources in terms of time and money etc are clearly identified as part of the overall programme and that the senior management team in your company has bought into the objective and the programme.   This will make sure that every one really understands what’s involved in achieving an objective and more importantly that the right objectives are given a priority and you don’t fall into the trap of setting too many objectives.

Also make sure that within the programme you have regular reviews/updates to monitor progress and update and amend programmes as you progress your objective.    

This may seem like a detailed approach, but failure to have an effective programme for your objectives may well result in non-conformities at your next ISO 14001 audit.