Academic and professional literature publisher Emerald Group Publishing Ltd., UK, has announced that it has become one of the first publishing businesses in the region to successfully gain an internationally recognised environmental certification. The company is now ISO 14001:2004 certified after implementing a new Environmental Management System (EMS), at their head office in Bingley, West Yorkshire. The EMS will control and improve the company's environmental performance and was externally audited by ISOQAR, the accredited certification body.
The certification is the result of four employees on the company's employee development programme, the Emerald Academy, being given an environmental project to complete. The team explored how it could benefit Emerald further and decided to work towards the ISO 14001:2004 certificate.
The EMS now provides a framework for Emerald to control and influence the environmental impacts of its activities and to continually monitor and improve its environmental performance. Emerald set targets to reduce the amount of energy, paper and plastics the company used, and also to increase the level of waste recycled. Emerald was awarded the certificate after nine months, which is half the suggested 18 month timetable that most businesses work towards.
