Achieving ISO 14001 with waste and

Sustainable Advantage

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Achieving ISO 14001 with waste and energy The specific challenges of compliance

James Stander

The ISO14000 family of standards provides practical tools for organisations looking to

manage their environmental responsibilities.

ISO14001 and its supporting standards sets out the criteria for an Environmental

Management System (EMS) which can be certified. It provides a framework to set up an

effective environmental management system regardless of activity or sector. Over 300,000

organisations across the world have been certified to this standard.

Why implement an EMS in your organisation?

There are many benefits to implementing an EMS within your organisation including:-

• Improved control and management of emissions, effluents and wastes

• Safe handling or avoidance of use of hazardous and potentially polluting materials

• Reductions in general waste

• Energy efficiency improvement and cost savings

• Conservation of natural resources, including land and precious minerals / resources

• A comprehensive approach to satisfying legal and other requirements

• Operational efficiency and cost savings

• Pursuing environmental initiatives that are aligned with business priorities

• Increased profitability

• Improved relationships with all stakeholders including customers, regulators and investors


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A simple checklist to consider for ISO 140001 compliance

To achieve ISO 140001 compliance, there are key activities that you will need to consider:-

• Setting your objectives

o Identifying the legal requirements relevant to your organisation

o Defining the scope of the required EMS system

• Establishing and implementing your EMS procedures and processes and training your staff

• Evaluating your performance and keeping records of this

• Performing internal audit and a management review

• Taking corrective action

• Certification audits

Sustainable Advantage is one of the UK’s leading energy, waste and water management companies. We work with over 3,000 sites across the UK spanning every sector. We are

working with many of our clients to become ISO accredited or they are already ISO

accredited and use our services to assist them during certification audits.

The purpose of this white paper

This white paper will provide guidance on how you can achieve ISO accreditation without

deploying a massive amount of resources, and highlight how taking these steps to

compliance will lead you to achieve so much more.

The path to compliance can lead to a reduction in your costs, a more efficient way of

managing your day to day activities and an increase in the data you gather, which can then

be converted into useful information for changes and general financial benefit.

Waste

Your current waste set-up

So what should an ISO 14001 accredited organisation know about how their waste is

currently set-up:-

• What waste is generated at each location

• How the bins are set up to hold this waste

• The volumes of waste removed for each waste stream

• Who removes the waste

• Where the waste is taken and how it is disposed of

In addition, the organisation will have the relevant compliance documentation stored for

easy access for each relevant waste removal. It will also have management reports by site


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and document overall waste data and information, which must be reviewed by

management.

Waste, whilst not necessarily the largest spend, if set up incorrectly can take an inordinate

amount of staff time to manage. The largest challenge in the ISO process is that many

organisations have on average 7 different waste streams, with as many as 5 different

suppliers removing waste. These different waste streams include:-

• General waste (GW)

• Dry Mixed Recycling (DMR)

o Food

o Card

o Plastics

o Metals

• Shredding

• Sanitary

• Shredding

• WEEE waste (electrical)

• Hazardous or clinical waste

So in any given month, they may receive several invoices from different suppliers making

the gathering of data and information very challenging. This issue alone, has prevented

many organisations from trying to get a better handle on waste.

The waste carriers also play a very large part in making this information gathering process

difficult as invoices are usually not detailed enough. At worst this can mean an invoice for an

amount but with no further information (for example, what waste stream was taken away

and in what volume).

Most suppliers will at least tell you that x bins of y volume containing z were taken away in

the month which is a good start. There are industry averages on what a certain bin with a

certain waste stream will hold. Most 1100ltr bins will hold waste weighing between 65 and

75kgs. So assuming that’s as much information as we have, what can we do?

Firstly you need to consider what industry you are in. A hotel without food segregation will

have 1100ltr GW bins weighing 80kg on average. 1100ltr DMR bins can vary between 30 and

40kg and again depending on what goes in there will affect the end weight. Each client’s internal processes will also have an impact on the weight, even if they are in the same end

sector e.g. hotels. Many hotels back of house staff correctly place cardboard boxes into the

DMR bin. The problem is these are often not squashed and as such these bins can weigh

20kg. Where staff are properly trained and take care to flatten the cardboard boxes these

bins will hold more and can weigh 45kg.


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It’s not so difficult to simply weigh the individual bags from a sample of bins to get a more accurate measurement of weight for your business. More and more suppliers have onboard

weight data as they load your bins. One issue here is that many of these measure in

increments of 10kg which is a great deal when a DMR bin has an average weight of 35kg.

Your individual EMS will outline your approach to handling this dilemma. You can use

standard weight data but if you are keen to make the data as accurate as possible you can

use a luggage scale to very quickly measure a sample of the contents within your waste

containers. Failing that you can use industry standards tailored to your business.

How to handle DMR?

What can you do with DMR which comprises many unique identifiable components? You

can do one of two things here. Firstly you can deconstruct a number of your DMR bins and

split the contents into 5 or so components, weigh them and going forward use these as the

basis of what each DMR bin consists of. You can also ask your supplier for a report showing

what DMR collected on your round translated into at the treatment facility where

machinery and human intervention segregated the waste. The obvious drawback here is

that your collection is part of circa 4 tons within the vehicle that collected your waste. So

our advice is to take some time to analyse your own waste periodically and use this as your

benchmark.

What to do with the benchmarking metrics

Great so you now have the metrics per container collected. Unfortunately, the next step will

require some admin consolidation on the invoices you receive from the various suppliers. At

the end of each month, you should now be able to report on what waste is being taken

away and in what volumes/per site.

With this, you can create a consolidated league table with some calculated parameters such

as KG of waste stream x per room (hotel) per sq ft or per £ of raw materials purchased etc.

You now have the data to be able to interrogate. Questions to ask yourself are:

• What volume of waste is being generated?

• What is the recycling %?

• What factors affect each?

You can then set targets for each and continue with monthly measurement.


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Other tips or areas to focus on

• Leverage your suppliers’ time and resources (especially when it comes to time to re-tender for

your business). Request they do a waste review at their cost to help identify anything that can be

changed.

• Internal bins set up poorly will start a chain of poor waste performance that can’t be reversed.

Commence with the internal bin set up and ensure that it facilitates recycling.

• Focus on staff training and posters. One key challenge here is that staff handling waste typically

change quite frequently – think of hotels and restaurants. Good, clear, consistent signage

therefore, is an essential start and whilst training the hands on staff it’s also helpful to train at management level to ensure continuity, with documented procedures.

• Regularly (at least monthly) review the waste stats

What now?

Right, so now you have a handle on what waste is produced and in what volume. Is that

enough? Absolutely not. It’s your obligation to ensure that:

• An accredited waste carrier removes your waste with the correct insurances and

certification

• You have the appropriate Annual Duty of Care (annual scheduled waste movements that are

non hazardous) or Waste Transfer Notes (non hazardous non schooled collections e.g skips)

and consignment notes (clinical waste)

• And here is where ISO requires more. You should also know and document

o Where the waste ends up

o Is it allowed to be processed there (check permits)

o And how is it treated (incinerated, landfill or recycled)

All of the above will vary constantly and hence this data needs to be checked and refreshed

monthly.

Well on your way to compliance

You are now in a position to set some goals to achieve/objectives/targets:-

• You know what waste is being produced by each site in its constituent parts

• You have monthly reports by site and a consolidated table

• Staff are trained and waste processes are documented

• You know which supplier is responsible for each waste stream and that they are authorised

to carry that waste

• You know where the waste is disposed and how its disposed of

Your goals will be unique to your organisation and can vary from reducing costs to

environmental (increased recycling) and more. Information gathered should be reviewed

monthly - budget vs target and corrective action documented and taken frequently. Success


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and failure should be documented and shared across the sites within the group. A detailed

review and reassessment should be done annually.

A key challenge experienced, especially in the ISO process is the ability to document the

above and store evidence or proof. We strongly suggest the use of an online portal so that

sites across the UK can store and retrieve documentation for auditing purposes. The key

challenge however is that someone needs to ensure completeness and accuracy, for

example, ensuring you have compliance documentation for each waste transfer. The most

effective way to do this is by collating all waste invoices per month and then identifying

whether compliance documentation is required and cross checking that to the compliance

notes.

In our experience when clients approach waste in the above manner savings of 10% plus are

routine before even considering changing suppliers or tendering focussed on price.

So, should companies tackle this alone or seek external help? Sustainable Advantage as an

independent waste management company helps many organisations across the UK seek to

gain or satisfy ISO 14001 accreditation for the following reasons:

• We are waste specialists

• We are familiar with the ISO requirements and how waste fits into this standard

• We procure and manage over £15m of waste annually and so our procurement power and

supplier knowledge means that we provide our clients with low rates managing reliable

suppliers. We consolidate the suppliers under us and only bill you with 1 invoice per site

with all the required granular information

• We undertake site visits and gather information relating to current set up, weight data,

signage, staff training requirements etc

• We manage the entre supply chain – insurances, compliances etc including undertaking site

audits

• We gather all waste data and create all required reports

• Our Account Managers will analyse the data and work with our client’s teams to make the required changes

• We provide an online portal for 24/7 access to all relevant data

Whilst the above is comprehensive and one would expect costs to increase, our

procurement power and management of the waste typically results in good levels of

savings.


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Energy

Your current energy requirements

In an ideal situation, an ISO 14001 accredited organisation will know:

• How much energy it is using in each location

• How this compares to what it should be

And it will be able to:-

• Disseminate this information to various parts of the organisation

• Take swift corrective action

Compared to waste, it is much more straightforward to gather data related to energy

consumption. Most sites now either have half hourly (HH) meters (with data easily

available) or non-half hourly meters (NHH) which are smart meters and have monthly or

even hourly data. There are many software tools that can upload this information and

display it in a variety of forms. So what is critical:-

• Having an up to date property and meter register showing each meter within each property

for electricity and gas.

• Knowing what meter types there are and the frequency of data collection

• Having smart meters fitted at all sites

• Having granular data - hourly or more frequent

• Having the information automatically downloaded into a software tool for further analysis

How often should these reports be generated? It depends on the customers staff location,

availability and how fast action can be taken. It’s no good having a quarterly energy report that shows a massive overspend if it could have been investigated and corrected early.

Likewise issuing an energy report hourly would not be well received and distracting.

A next day report is often very useful where actions can easily be taken and involve a

change in behaviour. For example, seeing a report that the previous night’s energy usage was high could mean lights or the air-conditioning was left on and a manager could speak to

responsible members of staff.

What to do with the data?

The next stage is to convert the data into useful information. The biggest mistake we see is

the volume of reports being generated for companies monthly, but with no further action

being taken.

These reports are often at too high a level such as site X uses Y kWh of energy in the month

with limited detail on what it should have been compared to an accurate base load setting.


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There is often no analysis on why this over consumption has occurred e.g. night time

consumption was high (possibly from items like air conditioning being left on overnight), did

certain days cause a particular issue.

Reports should always be appropriate for the different staff disciplines that will read and

action the report. Reports should be altered based on what information is key to the

recipient and their level of technical knowledge. Finance teams are always concerned about

the variation vs budget and kWh should also be converted into pounds. Reports sent to a

site based engineer need to be detailed whereas to a store manager with limited energy

expertise specific to operational behaviour.

What else is being done to assist in highlighting issues?

Automatic monitoring and targeting (Am&T) is the use of software which interrogates

energy data and automatically alerts someone that an alarm has been raised because of an

event. If, for example, night time consumption should be at a certain level and this higher

than the base load profile, the system will alert the designated person. This is cost effective

as a consultant won’t have to spend time analysing data and the alert is more immediate. We would advise that it is important to document remedial actions reviewed actions have

been implemented otherwise alarms can be ignored.

Increased granularity of data is an emerging trend which is helping to reduce energy

consumption. An alert may indicate that consumption was 25% over what was expected or

over the previous night’s levels, but the challenge is to know the cause. Sometimes sub-

metering may be useful to specifically diagnose the issue.

Sub-metering is a non-invasive, cost effective method of gathering very granular (minute by

minute) energy usage levels for individual items of equipment, lighting, air-conditioning etc.

This will mean that you can pinpoint what has caused the issue. Sub-metering can also

accurately show the impact of changes made on site.


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Sub-metering example 1: HVAC

The client didn’t realise the meeting rooms had the aircon running 24/7. The sub-metering highlighted this, we

adjusted the settings and the improvement is clearly visible (blue line).

Green line 19th Sept 2011

Blue line 21st Sept 2011


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Water

Water has always lagged behind energy and waste in terms of data gathering, analysis and

subsequent actions being taken. This is due to a number of reasons:

• Water as a % of total expenditure is relatively small for most companies and low down on

the agenda of priorities

• Data is hard to get hold of - many water meters can be underground making data

communications very difficult and reliable

• Many people think not much can be done to reduce water costs

Since 1st April 2017 there has been a massive change in the water sector in England as a

result of deregulation of the water industry. Water market deregulation will be

implemented in two phases as follows:

• 1st April 2017 – partial deregulation, whereby the retail element of water pricing will be set

by the water companies and wholesale element remains fixed by the regulator. Suppliers

will now be able to supply water to clients anywhere in the UK in the same way as gas and

electricity suppliers currently do (note the “switch savings” will be relatively small, as nowholesale price savings are available in this first phase), and

• 1st April 2020 – full deregulation, with no fixing of wholesale pricing. Based on our

experience in Scotland (now fully deregulated), this will open-up much bigger potential

savings

This change has focussed many more companies on water as a way of reducing cost. An

additional key benefit which is particularly relevant to ISO 14001, is that some suppliers are

offering free smart water meters as part of enticing customers to switch to them.

Traditionally customers paying for smart water meters has been cost prohibitive given the

relatively small potential savings. With suppliers including water meters in their proposal

makes it worthwhile and assists in helping gather accurate data.

Like with energy and waste, water data needs to be converted into information ready for

analysis and action. What steps can be taken?

The key area for focus is always on leak detection. Its key to understand what a standard

site with the same categories as yours should use i.e. hotels are different to offices and

schools. Even within hotels there are large and small hotels, hotels with pools etc.

As water management tends to be a very new activity for most organisations the focus is

mostly on getting data and understanding whether these usage levels are reasonable or not.

Over time organisations will start working with this data to help reduce water usage.


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Conclusion

Sustainable Advantage is ideally placed to help manage all of the challenges you will face in

achieving ISO 14001 compliance. Contact us to see how we can help you:

[email protected]

0203 544 2020

mailto:[email protected]

Achieving ISO 14001 with waste and

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