June 4 - PD Ports has recently been awarded the ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems (EMS) certification, one of the first UK ports businesses to achieve this qualification.
The company achieved the ISO 14001 accreditation, guided and advised by international environmental consultancyENVIRON , which provided support throughout the implementation process, starting with a gap analysis, drafting procedures, training employees and undertaking legal compliance evaluations.
Russ McCallion , PD Ports' human resources director, added: "For about 18 months we have been working hard on achieving formal accreditation for our Environmental System to ISO 14001 standards.
"This, of course, is only the start of our programme to achieve and maintain excellence in the management of our environmental obligations."
Emma Goodchild , Manager at ENVIRON, said: "Our approach built on PD Ports' earlier work in conservancy and its existing Health and Safety Management system. It focused on empowering staff to successfully implement the EMS within their areas of responsibility. This means that the Group now has an extremely strong and capable team of Environmental Champions, which was particularly commented upon by the scheme's external auditors SGS ."
SGS also commented on the low number of minor non conformances found across the Group during the external auditing process, they said it was unusual to find so few in businesses as large and diverse as PD Ports at the initial accreditation stage.
"Now that the ISO 14001 certification has been achieved, the plan is to move towards achieving cost savings and reducing carbon emissions through better energy and resource efficiency," concluded Russ.
