09 November 2018
The annual VIBES Awards celebrate Scottish businesses who are taking significant steps to improve or reduce their impact on the environment, often saving money at the same time.
It must be acknowledged that those celebrated at VIBES have achieved their success despite the increasing challenges of today’s operating environment: increasing utility costs; volumes of EHS legislation; updated ISO management system standards; supply chain and customer sustainability pressures, and a lack of specialised technical resource. This is coupled with decreasing capital and operating budgets, and lessening internal EHS resource.
In the run up to the VIBES Awards, it is an opportunity to reflect upon what has changed since last year and what is new on the horizon.
And what a year it has been! Firstly by the end of last year, each member country of the European Union had to adhere to the EU’s Medium Combustion Plant Directive (MCPD) which first came into effect in December 2015.
Offering businesses a robust and effective process to reduce workplace injuries and accidents, ISO 45001:2018, the international standard for an Occupational Health and Safety management system, was published in March 2018, replacing the British Standard OHSAS 18001.
Providing a framework for managing energy performance and addressing energy costs, while helping companies reduce their environmental impact to meet emissions reduction targets, ISO 50001:2018 was published in August 2018. This follows the same high level structure as the other ISO management systems, allowing greater integration of energy with business strategy and operations.
Also, in August this year HSE revised and updated EH40/2005 Workplace exposure limits to reflect new workplace exposure limits for 31 substances and will guide those responsible for controlling exposure to hazardous substances at work.
The transition deadline for not one, but two international standards - ISO 9001 and ISO 14001:2015 was September 2018
Applicable to large energy users in the public and private sectors, the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (Revocation and Savings) Order 2018 (SI 2018/841) entered into force for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland on 01 October. This Order provides for the early closure of the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, a mandatory carbon emissions reduction scheme, formerly known as the ‘Carbon Reduction Commitment’.
Finally, ESOS Phase 2 is now underway with the qualification deadline of 31 December 2018. The compliance deadline is 31 December 2019 for qualifying organisations.
We are proud to say that Mabbett are one of the VIBES sponsors this year. We are often 'behind the scenes' working with our clients to interpret and implement changes in legislation and updates to ISO management systems. It's great to see our hardworking client companies recognised publicly. We look forward to a great event to showcase Scotland's positive environmental and business impacts.