Marshalls rely on Cedrec for environmental compliance
Legislation analysts Cedrec has collaborated with leading hard landscaping manufacturer Marshalls for environmental compliance.
Marshalls recognised it needed Cedrec’s advice and expertise as it faced a major implementation programme to comply with new ISO 14001 standards across its UK network of 49 sites.
There were significant amounts of environmental legislation to consider such as pollution prevention and control, water pollution, wildlife and biodiversity, energy, waste management, statutory nuisance control and hazardous substances management.
The key compliance challenges for Marshalls were firstly to understand the whole operation and its interactions with its stakeholders. Undertaking site audits with Cedrec was pivotal in achieving this as it identified all applicable legislation and highlighted a number of areas for improvement, thereby reducing risk to the business.
To drive environmental performance and compliance, it was felt that specialist external input would be of great benefit enabling Marshalls’ Environmental Management System (EMS) to really add value to the business. Cedrec was chosen as Marshalls had for a number of years already been subscribing to the firm’s online guidance service. This was simple to follow and apply to the business due to Cedrec’s ability to convey legislation requirements in an easy to understand manner.
The collaboration with Cedrec unfolded from an initial site visit to Marshall’s Eaglescliffe facility on Teesside to assess how to improve the EMS, whilst considering the impending release of ISO 14001:2015.
A framework was constructed to roll out a number of site investigations covering precast concrete, minerals extraction and processing, mortar batching and street furniture production. From there, a full register of legal requirements was constructed, which Cedrec updates 3 times per annum and a suite of environmental policy documents were constructed following the key legislation themes.
Cedrec’s site visits to Marshalls, which will be maintained throughout 2016, offered a fresh insight into the varied operations and processes across the group. Sustainability is one of Marshalls’ core values, therefore environmental performance plays a significant role. The other core values of leadership, excellence and trust are also demonstrated in this approach to environmental management.
Matthew Gibb, group environment and water manager at Marshalls, said: “Our partnership with Cedrec allows us to have greater confidence when approaching environmental legislation and compliance.
“As legal updates are managed and issued by Cedrec, we are able to prioritise areas of our EMS for improvement and concentrate on business projects, site and performance monitoring and sharing best practice across the group.
“Cedrec helped us tailor the legal register to best suit the business and provided user friendly internal environmental policy documents, followed by the development of proactive ways to demonstrate compliance and promote best practice.
“Awareness of any potential future changes to environmental legislation is key for Marshalls to risk and plan ahead, ensuring that we will not be caught out by changes in legislation. Going forward, we will be working with Cedrec to harmonise those business and operational aspects that impact on our environmental policy, allowing us to further demonstrate the ‘top down’ approach as laid out in ISO 14001:2015.”
Cedrec specialises in providing public and private sector organisations with help and advice in understanding, interpreting and complying with environmental, planning and health and safety legislation. The company offers a range of specialist consultancy and subscriptions services.
