What is an environmental management system?
An environmental management system helps the organisation to take environmental issues into account in all matters related to its operations. It guides the setting of environmental targets and the assessment of environmental risks, and makes the monitoring of the targets and the development of environmentally responsible operations systematic.
What is an environmental certificate?
An organisation can be awarded an environmental certificate as evidence that it actually operates in accordance with its environmental management system. The certificate is issued by an external accredited body which, through annual audit visits, assesses whether the conditions of the certificate are met in the company’s operations.
Triolab has been awarded an environmental certificate in accordance with ISO 14001. The environmental management system under this standard and Triolab’s ISO 9001 management system have uniform basic components, so they can be seamlessly integrated.
Why have an environmental management system?
Triolab has an environmental management system because we want to operate responsibly and take the wellbeing and future of our environment into consideration in our operations. We also want to develop all our operations – in environmental matters as well. A certified environmental management system shows our attitude towards the environment and possibly also serves as an example for other operators.
Many of our customers value the supplier’s environmental management system when organising competitive tendering. Similarly, when selecting new suppliers, we prefer them to have either an environmental certificate or a separate report on environmental responsibility. Our parent group AddLife has the same requirement.
What will change with the environmental certification?
Not much has changed at Triolab with the environmental certification, because even before the certification, our goal was to operate in an environmentally responsible way. Our parent group, AddLife, has also long required its companies to implement sustainability reporting with extensive environmental sections.
However, the environmental management system brings with it systematic ways and new tools for developing and monitoring environmentally responsible operations. It involves setting measurable environmental targets, assessing environmental risks and monitoring the achievement of the environmental targets.