Energy and the Environment: Exploring the Role of Energy in an Environmental Management System Introduction

This series of blogs will help organisations in achieving and maintaining certification to ISO 14001 and ISO 27001.

Assent Risk Management and AvISO Consultancy have joined forces to produce a series of blogs to investigate the role energy can play in helping to maximize the value of an Environmental Management System (EMS) whilst considering the implications to Information Security.

Through the following Blogs, we will address energy in relation to some of the key clauses of ISO 14001:2015. We will also consider the implications to an Information Security Management System (ISMS)

Overview

There are very few businesses that have no influence over their energy use. Be it through:

  • Choosing a better energy supplier;
  • Maximising the efficiency of processes;
  • Improved management of air-conditioning systems; or
  • Simply switching things off when they are not being used.

In fact, energy is often the area where a business has the most influence and as such, it is likely to be determined as one of the significant environmental aspects in an ISO 14001:2015 system.

Where a business has an influence over their energy use it is likely that they will, therefore, have several legal compliance obligations, these include:

  • The Energy Performance of Buildings (Certificates and Inspections) (England and Wales) Regulations 2012 (last updated 2014)
  • Climate change levy (CCL) (2015 Amends)
  • Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS)
  • The Heat Network (Metering and Billing) Regulations 2014

The following blogs will look at each of these in more detail, considering what is required to comply and what value compliance can provide.

One of the most important quotes in business management is

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it (Peter Drucker)”

In the context of energy management, nothing could be truer. Quarterly billing estimates and percentages of total space provide very little information from which an effective energy strategy can be developed.

Once you have determined energy as a significant aspect, made yourself aware of the legislation and obtained good data on energy use, you are well on your way to complying with much of ISO 14001. The next step is to bring that energy use down. This does not mean working in the dark or cycling to work every day. It is about determining where the options are and what Energy Performance Indicators (EPI) to use to assess progress.

Please make sure you follow the other blogs in the series to find out more about energy and ISO 14001.

Guest Blog by Paul Stevens from AvISO Consultancy – Part of a series by Assent Risk Management and AvISO Consultancy

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Lauren Tobin
Lauren Tobin
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