Environmental consultants White Young Green (WYG) explain about a landmark environmental management project using Defra Business Resource Efficiency from Waste (BREW) funding, of which they are now delivering the second phase. 

What is the objective of the environmental management project?

How does the FM sector as a whole stand to benefit from the initiative?

The Defra Business Resource Efficiency from Waste (BREW) funding mechanism recycles landfill tax receipts to businesses to help them improve resource efficiency and competitiveness. The aim of the WYG environmental management project is to develop and implement industry sector-specific Environmental Management System (EMS) programmes by working with individual sector trade associations and their member companies, initially in a pilot group of six companies.

The Facilities Management Association (FMA) has recently been engaged in formulating a plan to deliver a pilot sector programme for the FM sector during 2007/08. This will involve six FM companies acting as participants in the pilot group, which will be recruited and overseen by the FMA. Each of these six companies will be 'hand-held' through the process of EMS implementation using the step-by-step BS 8555/Acorn approach, which is fully aligned with the ISO 14001 standard.

The funding available to the project means that each of these companies will receive free of charge training workshops, consultancy support, guidance materials and templates, and third party certification to the BS 8555/Acorn phases.

The intended project outputs will be all six FM companies achieving certification to Phase 3 of BS 8555/Acorn and at least three achieving certification to Phase 5. The latter will enable graduation to ISO 14001 certification soon after the April 2008 pilot programme completion date. In addition to these certification outputs, the project will produce a package of fully tested guidance materials and templates for the FM sector, and help deliver the wider environmental and business benefits of environmental management for the participants.

These include potential cost savings from resource use efficiencies and reduced insurance premiums, reduced risk of legal non-compliances and pollution incidents, and marketing benefits from enhanced environmental credentials.

Given that clients and other stakeholders are increasingly requesting evidence of responsible environmental management, this project supports new business development, as well as retention of existing business and skilled staff. Many skilled employees are now expecting and demanding more of their employers. This project helps to address these widely held environmental concerns using a robust and proven methodology, which aims to increase environmental and business performance levels without introducing unnecessary bureaucracy.

FM companies wishing to be seen as responsible partners for clients should be proactively addressing environmental issues as an essential component of their business strategies.

The 2006/07 project was a great success with feedback from the companies and trade associations involved suggesting that the project was very worthwhile and much appreciated by all involved. The intention now is to roll out the successful project model to other sectors, and the FM sector is an obvious target given its important role in helping clients to manage their assets. Given that "a problem shared is a problem halved", clients are increasingly looking for solutions to environmental and sustainability issues and the more this can be demonstrated through FM contractors having the right credentials and service offerings, the greater value clients will perceive from the relationship.

The position of the FM contractor within client organisations is such that many key environmental issues can be addressed effectively by FM contractors on the clients' behalf. For this reason, clients will be looking for FM contractors with the right credentials to help them deliver on their environmental and sustainability strategies.

Further information

Paul Burr, White Young Green, Tel: 07771 807873, Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , www.wyg.com