Kirklees Metropolitan Council A case study of achieving EMASഊ1 Kirklees Metropolitan Council A case study of achieving EMAS BEFORE AFTER Waste Management is an issue for all depots.EMAS has helped put in place a controlled waste management system which has increased waste recycling,reduced risk of pollution,improved house-keeping,health &safety and the general appearance of the sites. In early 2004 Kirklees Metropolitan Council (KMC)successfully achieved full Council Certification to the Eco-management and Audit Scheme (EMAS).The implementation process was over a three year period with nine departments gaining certification in year one,18 in year two and in the final year all 25 departments succeeded. The journey to full Council verification has been far from easy;however the environmental and cost benefits far exceed the implementation costs. Costs Annual council budget of £154,000: •3 Environment Management System (EMS)Officer posts (£100,000); •Internal Auditing (£20,000); •Training &Publications (£10,000); •External verification (£24,000). Human resources: •Three EMAS officers providing assistance to 25 central departments; •High impact (significant)departments:15 days assistance per year; •Complex impact departments:10 days per year; •Low impact departments 5 days per year; •25 departmental EMAS Lead Officers, (approx.4 days per month); •Internal audits –internal audit department (45 days per year). There are also additional capital costs for high impact departments to implement depot improvements.For example,in order to comply with the Control of Pollution (Oil Storage)Regulations 2001,Environmental Services spent £38,000 on replacing fuel dispensing installations,waste oil storage improvements,and the installation of spillage kits. Building Services Depot:Before and after EMAS implementationഊ2 After the success of the whole Council achieving EMAS accreditation it was essential to reflect on what KMC has learnt over the three year implementation period.A SWOT analysis (STRENGTHS,WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES and THREATS)was therefore undertaken.Results of the analysis are as follows. STRENGTHS Group Involvement –EMAS has improved communication between council departments. Initially there was one EMAS Lead Officer in each department implementing EMAS,but this brought about many difficulties as these officers often worked separately to the overall management. When KMC was verified in November 2002 it was identified that human resources should be increased,especially in the more significant high impact departments.Now departments with significant impacts have a team approach to EMAS which enables all significant aspects and improvements to be captured within an environmental management system as part of the overall management approach of the service. Departments now also share EMAS best practice and have a greater awareness of department activities. EMAS is now seen as a corporate priority – EMAS has strong support from the Council ’s Executive Management Group,and as a result senior management see EMAS as a council priority and have been able to access support such as additional funds for environmental improvements. Cost Benefit –EMAS can help save money as well as benefiting the environment, especially in reducing waste production, energy waste and fuel consumption. Buildings energy use (2000 –2002) •47%reduction in emissions of CO2 –£714,000 saving Fleet transport (2000 –2002) •4%reduction in emissions of CO2 –£295,000 saving Employee mileage (2001/2 –2002/3) •7%reduction in emissions of CO2 –£284,000 saving Waste (2000 –2002) •12%reduction in tonnes produced –£29,000 saving Legal Compliance -EMAS has helped the Council identify and comply with all applicable environmental legislation. Before the introduction of EMAS the Council had made no corporate provision to ensure compliance with environmental legislation. This was generally dealt with by officers from work areas where environmental legislation applied. To overcome this,KMC completed a review of each department in order to identify applicable legislation and compiled this into a register which is reviewed annually. EMAS has helped us identify an unexpected number of non-compliances in legislation regarding waste and water management.We consulted the Environment Agency and Yorkshire Water on how to become compliant with these issues and through our openness and commitment,we developed a strong working relationship with both regulatory bodies.They supported us by delivering legal training to all of our departmental EMAS Lead Officers,carrying out numerous site inspections and providing documented guidance. EMAS is rewarding to services –By adopting a department-by-department approach,services are rewarded by each receiving their own EMAS certificate at a high profile awards ceremony.A prestigious ceremony was held at Huddersfield Town Hall in May 2004 to award services on their EMAS achievements.Martin Baxter,the Managingഊ3 Director of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA), presented the EMAS certificates of registration. Additional awards were also presented by Janet Russell,Director of Environment and Transportation for: •the service with the most environmental improvements; •the service with the best environmental improvement; •the most committed EMAS Lead Officer; •the most committed EMAS Cascade Officer (ECO). ECO co-ordination –KMC has a network of 250 ECOs.This is a network of volunteers who promote environmental issues within their workplace.They do this primarily through environmental theme months.There are six theme months which run throughout the year, each of which concentrates on a significant issue for the Council:Energy,Waste,Water, Transport,Purchasing and Bio-diversity.This is a valuable,inexpensive mechanism for raising environmental awareness to the Council ’s 17,500 employees. EMAS has brought about environmental cultural change –Change can be a very gradual process and it is important to remember it is difficult to convert everybody! Since going for EMAS,there has gradually been a greater commitment and enthusiasm towards the protection of the environment from council employees.This has been demonstrated through the increased number of council staff volunteering to be ECOs. Integration with other Systems - “KMC ’s EMAS system is a complex well developed integrated system ”–quote from David Robinson,BSI EMAS Verifier in November 2003 verification. At the beginning,EMAS was seen as a stand- alone system.However,over time links were made to integrate EMAS with other council systems.KMC has now set up a corporate group consisting of senior and middle management to look at integrating all corporateഊ4 Confident staff being verified regimes such as Investors in People (IIP), Performance Management,Health and Safety, Information Management and Equalities.The aim is to reduce repetition and workloads whilst ensuring the continued development of all the regimes. Promotion of environmental projects -In the Council ’s annual Environment Statement, EMAS has helped to highlight many environmental projects being undertaken by other departments.The Environment Statement is an excellent opportunity for council departments to promote the good work which is being achieved. Staff Training Difficulties were encountered when trying to reach all front line staff.In the first phase of verification,a corporate non-conformance was raised due to poor operational control at depots. This required us to develop user-friendly procedures for frontline staff and provide training on why they needed to be followed.ഊ5 WEAKNESSES Bureaucracy –As with many management systems,EMAS can be perceived as bureaucratic,especially for low environmental impact departments.Although major changes have been made to the EMAS system over the past year it can sometimes be seen as an endless paperwork exercise. To alleviate this problem KMC are developing a simplified system which removes unnecessary layers of work for low impact services.For example external verification and internal audit schedules have been reviewed to ensure that low impact services are only verified and audited once in a three year period.Also,the paper based system is being replaced with an electronic database. Responsibility -EMAS is a large project to manage.Initially it was viewed to be the responsibility of the Environment Unit to implement and maintain the system.Over the years,departments have realised that it is their management system and responsibility to set and achieve their own objectives and targets and that the Environment Unit is there only in an advisory and co-ordinating role. Today,departments have full ownership of their systems,with EMAS representatives to ensure that it is maintained and that continual improvement is being achieved. Audits -KMC developed an environmental audit system to exceed the requirements of EMAS.The system was based on the principles expressed in the Internal Standards Organisation (ISO)series of environmental auditing guidelines,ISO 14010,14011,and 14012.Having such a thorough audit system enables the verifiers to spend less time on the EMAS documentation and more time concentrating on the environmental improvements being made. It is essential that internal audits cover operational control,ensuring appropriate procedures are in place and that they are being followed.This is important with front line staff as they can have the greatest potential for causing environmental damage.These staff must be made aware of the importance of following EMAS procedures. The introduction of a robust internal auditing scheme also benefited KMC in its climate protection work by putting it in a position to enter into the UK Emissions Trading Scheme and sign up to legally binding emission reductions up to 2006. It was recognised in the November verification 2003 that although KMC has an intense audit schedule,there is still room for improvement. This is why KMC are now working with Leeds City Council to share audit experience.In December 2003 the EMAS Officer from Leeds City Council undertook an audit on KMC ’s Highways Department and KMC audited the Leeds Building Agency.This was an extremely useful process as the Leeds verifiers raised many issues that our ’s hadn ’t and vice-versa. We are now committed to exchanging regular internal audits with Leeds City Council. Legal Compliance Demonstration - Demonstrating legal compliance is not an easy task.Initially KMC concentrated on getting all appropriate legal documentation in place for verification.It was identified that we need to go one step further and demonstrate compliance with consents,exemptions,permits and planning permission.In the future,all departments with legal documentation will be producing a legal matrix which will log legal documentation,the conditions,responsibilities and where it is retained. Impacts Scoring -The first stage of developing an environmental management system is to identify all of the environmental impacts of the organisation.The second stage is to determine which of the impacts are significant.In KMC we use a rather complex scoring system which operates well when scoring negative impacts, but is difficult to use when looking at positive impacts.KMC are now developing an easy to use scoring system which take positive impacts into consideration and that is more user friendly. Document Control –EMAS documentation needs to be controlled in that it needs to be dated,and have an issue number.Document control is a requirement in ISO 14001.Some departments have found it hard to set up a system to control this.This is a serious problem when being verified as you need to be able to demonstrate environmental improvements for a specific time period.ഊWe are designing an EMAS database to replace our current paper based system.This should eliminate document control problems and save paper as well. OPPORTUNITIES External Funding –KMC was invited to join a European Funded project with Global to Local to assist in implementing EMAS in Local Authorities in Poland,Hungary and Greece. This is a three year project where KMC will be providing practical implementation advice based on our six year EMAS experience. Sharing information with other Local Authorities -KMC wants to share experiences with other local authorities working towards EMAS.With joint support from Leeds and Bradford City Council a Yorkshire EMAS Group has been set up to achieve the following objectives: •Encourage and develop cross authority working partnerships; •Share best practice; •Share EMAS experiences; •Legislation scanning; •Training Development; •Access external funding streams. Statement -Many private organisations would be uncomfortable making a public environmental statement of performance as required by the EMAS standard.However, independant verification of environmental performance adds credibility by demonstrating that one is operating to a high standard and it reinforces commitment to public accountability. Verifying an environmental statement can be a lengthy process,especially when it includes a large number of departments.This can be made less time consuming if services are prepared in advance.We now ask all of our services to compile an “evidence pack ”to support each statement of their performance before verification. Supply chain &contractor involvement - KMC wants to expand business opportunities by providing an advisory service to our suppliers and contractors.KMC will also promote funding opportunities that are available such as Business Link,Green Business Network,Council Grants,Simply Solar etc. THREATS EMAS could be seen as a waste of money - KMC has a corporate budget of £154,000 a year to maintain EMAS.There are also some hidden costs such as physical depot improvements,ensuring legal compliance, training,manager and officers time etc.This can create competition with other corporate priorities,so it is important to continuously promote the cost savings and environmental benefits that are being made through having EMAS accreditation. EMAS may not be a priority -There are a lot of council initiatives fighting to be a priority; performance management,quality systems, information management,best value,health and safety,IIP etc.Managers can feel they are being overburdened and find it difficult to prioritise.KMC recognises this is an issue and has set up a corporate group to discuss linking the main corporate initiatives,with the objective of reducing repetition and workloads. Lack of maintenance once accreditation is achieved -There is a threat that the staff motivation will lessen now that EMAS accreditation has been achieved.Maintaining EMAS accreditation can be more difficult than achieving it,which is why it is important for the Council ’s EMAS Team to continuously promote the benefits and encourage commitment to continuous improvement. Local community -Perceptions of EMAS in the local community may lead to objection of tax payer ’s money being spent on EMAS as they may not understand or recognise the potential or actual benefit to their local area.It must be stressed that there are local benefits such as improved visual impact of council operations,improved quality of waterways, reduced waste generation,improved land management and increased biodiversity. 6ഊFor further details contact: Adele Wiseman,Environment Officer (EMAS) Helena Tinker,Environment Officer (EMAS) Environment Unit Kirklees Metropolitan Council 23 Estate Buildings Railway Street Huddersfield HD1 1JY Telephone:01484 223568 Fax:01484 223576 E-mail:environment.unit@kirklees.gov.uk Produced by Kirklees Environment Unit -October 2004 Printed on Recycled Paper KIRKLEES AGENDA