Henley Business School achieves coveted Environmental Award
January 25th, 2010Henley Business School has achieved the coveted Environmental award, ISO 14001, for the Greenlands Campus, Henley on Thames. This international standard requires organisations to develop an integrated, structured approach in setting and achieving environmental policies and objectives with the goal of supporting protection of the environment, prevention of pollution and compliance with regulatory requirements.
With ever increasing pressure from stakeholders and authorities to address sustainability, independent certification to ISO14001 will undoubtedly enhance the competitive stance and environmental credibility of any organisation involved with corporate education.
Such is the case for Henley Business School which has recently shown its commitment to sustainable management by implementing ISO14001. “As one of the world’s leading business schools, we wanted to demonstrate to our students, staff and corporate clients that we have a robust environmental management system in place,” says Alan Brand, Director of Hotel and Estate Services
“Sustainable management is critical to our future business so it is imperative that our systems reflect best working practice and a commitment to sustainability”.
“The ISO14001 standard provides a structured and effective framework for us to do that,” continues Brand. “The management system we have put in place is not just for our benefit, but has wider implications for society as a whole. ISO14001 gives us an opportunity to integrate a number of our initiatives into a formal structure allowing us to be economically viable in a truly sustainable way.”
The implementation of any management system can seem somewhat daunting, both in terms of resource and time required, however Henley Business School was able to build upon activities and processes already in place within the organisation. “Adoption of ISO14001 was easy in some ways as we do so much of the work already,” says Brand.
“However we knew that to achieve certification to ISO14001 we would need a facilitator with knowledge of our business. We therefore appointed Philip Catlow of Catlow Consulting who had worked with us on a number of projects. We also needed independent assessment to prove the credibility of our achievements and we selected BSI who are the National Standards Body of the UK, with a globally recognised reputation for independence, integrity and innovation in the production of standards that promote best practice.