Not costing the earth
June 29th 2009 A recent project delivered by WYG Environment (WYG) in partnership with the CSSA demonstrated that attractive cost savings and business benefits can be achieved through environmental improvements. The project ran between 2006 and 2008, and helped 16 cleaning and support services companies alongside over 100 other companies from eight other industry sectors.
The 16 cleaning companies included cleaning service providers as well as their suppliers, with those involved implementing an environmental management system (EMS) using the phased BS 8555/Acorn approach.
Data collected for the first year of the project showed that the participant cleaning and support services companies realised an average cost saving of £7,120 over the first year when the EMS was being implemented. Environmental savings such as this typically continue delivering year-on-year, so the business case for EMS implementation gets stronger with each passing year, particularly as prices increase for energy, fuel, water and materials.
The average investment needed to unlock these savings is around £2,500 per company, which offers a payback period of around four months. For this investment, each company receives technical training alongside other cleaning companies together with an appropriate level of consultancy support. In most cases, savings can be achieved without the need for significant investment in new equipment, by focusing on simple adjustments to existing practices and increasing staff education on environmental issues.
The achievement of BS 8555/Acorn and ultimately ISO 14001 certification offers great potential for generating new business. Environmental credentials are now commonly assessed by clients in pre-qualification questionnaires and tender documents. According to the findings of the pilot project survey, the cleaning and support services companies won an average of £177,917 in new business sales on the back of their newly improved environmental credentials. Duncan Bullough is the MD of Bullough Cleaning Services (one of the pilot companies). He stated, “We can certainly attribute one major contract to our having an effective, organised, logical EMS. We were short listed with two other companies and won the contract on our Environmental Approach.” The improvement in Bullough Cleaning Services’ environmental credentials was deemed to have generated £350,000 of new business and the company is now planning to make the short transition to ISO 14001 in spring 2009.
Cost savings and new business sales achieved by the cleaning and support services companies during the pilot are shown in table 1.
Legal compliance is one of the cornerstones of an effective EMS, so additional cost savings and benefits can also be achieved through avoided fines/clean-up costs and reputational gain.
What is BS 8555/Acorn?
BS 8555/Acorn is a flexible, step-by-step approach to environmental management based around six linked phases (see Figure 1). It allows participants to progress environmental management in a step-by-step manner and to gain third party certification after each ‘phase’. This allows companies to reach the level of environmental management that is deemed to be appropriate for their own circumstances and to gain external recognition for their achievements. These achievements can then be promoted to clients and other stakeholders to demonstrate improved environmental credentials. It is also worth noting that BS 8555/Acorn is often used as a route map to ISO 14001 certification as the two standards are so closely aligned in their approaches.
Get involved
The CSSA is now able to offer a similar support package to cleaning companies on a commercial basis, which comprises: A CD providing comprehensive guidance notes and templates for BS 8555/Acorn Phases 1-5, one-day training workshops for each phase (delivered to groups of cleaning companies) and flexible consultancy. Third party certification costs can be negotiated on a group basis for best value. Contact: Paul Burr, paul.burr@wyg.com.
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