Resource Efficiency East Launches New Initiative to Improve Environmental Performance of East of England Businesses
It is widely acknowledged that small businesses looking to improve resource efficiency will often benefit from adopting an environmental management system (EMS). However, more often than not, they lack the knowledge, understanding and time to implement such a system unaided. An environmental management system can help a company identify cost saving opportunities, ensure compliance with relevant legislation, meet the requirements of key customers and reduce the organisations impact on the environment.
As such the Resource Efficiency East Programme is launching The EMS Club early in 2010 and is calling on smaller businesses from the East of England to register their interest in the latest support offering from the programme to help them save money and become more efficient with their resources.
The EMS Club will assist businesses to understand and implement an environmental management system in a methodical, concise and staged manner through a series of workshops designed to encourage knowledge exchange and peer-to-peer networking. In addition businesses participating in The Club will have access to additional ‘one-to-one’ support to help them assess the priority areas within their organisation in terms of EMS implementation.
The Club will be run as a series of ‘hubs’ across the region so as to make the support as accessible as possible to small businesses with limited time available for such activities.We have now finalised the four hub venues for The EMS Club and these will be in;
-
Norwich, Norfolk
-
St Neots, Cambridgeshire
-
Chelmsford, Essex
-
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
We are limited to 25 businesses in each hub, so interested parties need to register soon to avoid disappointment. Our intention is to start the workshop programme at the end of March, but hubs will only start when we have a minimum of 20 participants.Whilst there is no closing date to register your interest, The Club will be limited to one hundred SMEs from the East of England.
Antony Gough, Director of Resource Efficiency East, comments: “The EMS Club will really benefit those smaller organisations for whom an environmental management system would help achieve positive change, but who don’t have the resources or knowledge to get started.
Each of The EMS Club hubs will be run by experienced professionals well versed in the implementation of environmental management systems and who have the ability to share this knowledge in straightforward manner"
Resource Efficiency East delivers specialist advice, guidance and support on how businesses in the East of England can reduce the use of resources; water, energy and materials and achieve financial savings as a result.Other key service offerings include;
-
Business Resource Review- a generic resource review covering energy, water and materials/waste aimed at assisting SMEs to identify resource efficiency opportunities and the associated cost savings.
-
EMS Initial Review - a benchmarking review to assist SMEs looking to adopt an EMS. The review provides a gap analysis on terms of what needs to be done in order to implement an EMS.
-
Water Demand Management Review - a review focusing on water demand and use and assisting SMEs to develop a water use action plan and improve water efficiency.
-
Feasibility Studies - a detailed study of resource efficiency opportunities requiring significant capital investment
-
Supply Chain Network – we are looking for four larger organisations (inc. local authorities) who are interested in ‘greening’ their supply chain - a 30 day package of support is available to run a series of workshops and related activities.
If you any questions about The EMS Club or Resource Efficiency East generally, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly or speak to one of the team on 01733 294 524.
|
