Environmental management
Step by step

We all have a major role to play in helping protect and enhance the environment, in line with wider goals of sustainable development.

The way in which your business manages its interaction with the environment is coming under closer scrutiny - there is an increasing spiral of new legislation. However, increasingly companies are recognising that the environment is a management issue and not just a matter of compliance.

When evaluating your environmental system, make sure that emphasis is placed on the following: an environmental policy and impact review, clear and measurable targets and objectives, and mechanisms for improvement.

An effective policy does not have to be complicated. It is simply a realistic statement about what you are doing and how you are doing it. An environmental impact review will allow you to assess your company's baseline.

Based on your environmental impact review, you will also be able to make short-term targets and longer-term objectives to ensure that the policy is followed by all employees. Targets can be straightforward, for example 'to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by x% each year', but in all cases you should ensure that targets and objectives are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound).

Remember that small investments can reap large rewards and that environmentally friendly practices can save money while resulting in happier customers and of course a healthier ecology.

Health & Safety and the Law

The aims of good health & safety systems, safety policies and the law are to reduce occupational ill health, reduce accidents and deaths, provide a good working environment, promote physical and mental wellbeing, protect the environment and be a continual reminder of the commitment of all within the organisation towards safety.

Management peace of mind is but a dream for far too many businesses, here are the key elements considered essential when evaluating your health & safety systems:

• An adequate health & safety policy (link to HSE site)
• Legal compliance
• Good welfare facilities
• A plan to reduce accidents and incidents
• A mechanism for improvement

Remember that as an employer you have a legal and moral duty to make your organisation as safe and healthy a working environment as is reasonably practicable.

'Reasonably practicable' indicates a balance between cost and risk; companies need to identify and evaluate hazards in order to ensure that the financial and time costs of dealing with them are balanced against the risk of harm to a person. In a prosecution for breaches of safety legislation, the company must prove its innocence by justifying that it had done all that was 'reasonably practicable'.

Having a safe and pleasant workplace will improve working relationships and make your business somewhere your employees will enjoy being. Visiting clients will feel comfortable and more prepared to do business.

Risk Assessments

Conducting risk assessments and implementing appropriate control measures are an essential part of a good health and safety system.

If you have 5 or more employees you are required to have:

• A documented health and safety policy
• Risk assessments for all significant hazards to staff, residents and visitors
• Access to competent health and safety advice
• Documented arrangements for the planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of your safety arrangements. For example, A health and safety manual

However good health and safety is largely about applying common sense.

Health & safety – The basics

There are three main reasons why effective management of health and safety is important within any organisation:

1. Moral – Employers have a moral obligation towards their employees and others.
2. Financial – Good health and safety management can have beneficial effects on employee morale, productivity and hence company profit.
3. Legal – Health and safety legislation sets standards, which are by definition the minimum standard employers are expected to achieve.

Ever since the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 required every employer to “ensure so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees (and others)” there has been an implied duty to assess and control risk. This has been developed and made more explicit by the majority of recently published health and safety regulations.

The law

The main legislation relating to health and safety at work is the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

This give rise to further European and UK laws and regulations, including:

• Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
• COSHH (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health) 1999
• RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations) 1995
• Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992
• Fire Precautions (workplace) Regulations 1997/99
• Health and Safety (first aid) Regulations 1981

Health & safety responsibilities

Employers must:

• Provide a safe working environment
• Display insurance liability certificate
• Display health & safety law poster
• Carry out risk assessments
• Provide PPE (personal protective equipment)
• Communicate with staff regarding health and safety

Employees must:

• Cooperate with the employer on matters of health & safety.
• Consider their own health and safety
• Not interfere with any equipment provided for health & safety. 

Health and safety assistance

Health and Safety Assistance (The Management of Health and Safety at Work 1999 - Regulation 7)

Every employer must appoint one or more ‘competent persons’ to assist him in his undertaking the measures he needs to take to comply with the requirements of the law.....the overall purpose of the competent person is, therefore, to help ensure that the health and safety responsibilities of the employer are being met.....if there is no competent person in the workforce can the employer seek an outside consultant to act as the competent person.

A competent person can be defined as a person with:

• Sufficient training to suit the task
• Relevant qualifications
• Skills and experience – to apply their knowledge
• Understanding of the work involved and best practice
• An awareness of their own limitations
• Good personal qualities, attitude and communication
• The ability to supplement their own knowledge by obtaining external knowledge and advice

Risk assessments

Risk assessment is an essential part of the planning stage of any health and safety management system.

  

Risk assessment is the cornerstone of modern health and safety law. This dates back to one of the basic principles stated in the Robens Report which led the way to the HASAW Act 1974 ‘those who create risks should have the responsibility for overcoming those risks’.

Risk assessment is therefore the process of establishing whether or not risks are adequately managed (a safe system of work exists).

A risk assessment is simply a systematic way of establishing whether or not:

1. Legal standards are being met
2. Best practice is followed
3. Risks are reduced to the lowest level that is reasonably practicable to achieve i.e. that a safe system of work exists.

A risk assessment is important because it:

• Creates awareness of the hazards present in the workplace and the risk that they entail
• Identifies the population at risk, often those who are not thought of as being at risk (for example, cleaners, temporary workers, visitors)
• Identifies whether existing measures are adequate and whether more should be done.
• Makes sure that risk controls are proportionate to the risk involved
• Can iron out risks at the design stage in products that give rise to risks, for example machinery
• Helps to prioritise risk control measures, making sure that the most important risks are tackled first

Common definitions

Risk is defined as: The likelihood that the harm from particular hazards is realised (the extent of risk covers the population affected and the consequences for them) a risk can be reduced by good management.

Hazard is defined as: Anything with the potential to cause harm.

The elimination or adequate control of hazards is a more pro-active way of reducing injuries than simply investigating accidents. The identification of hazards is the first step in risk control, each hazard representing a potential accident or health problem.

Common hazards

Hazards may be either:

• Physical - for example, machinery, electricity, heat, noise, gravity, thermal
• Chemical – for example, water, acid, alkali, asbestos
• Biological – for example, HIV virus, legionella, hepatitus
• Ergonomics – for example, physical stress
• Psychological – for example, stress, shock anxiety

There are many hazard identification techniques the simplest of which is observation/inspection.

Conducting a risk assessment

The HSE gives comprehensive risk assessment guidance in their booklet five steps to risk assessment.

The five steps are:

1. Identify the hazards
2. Decide who might be harmed and how
3. Evaluate the risks and decide upon precaution
4. Record your findings and implement them
5. Review your assessment and update if necessary

Don’t overcomplicate the process. In many organisations, the risks are well known and the necessary control measures are easy to apply.

It is important to ensure that all groups of employees and others that might be affected must be considered.

Do Not Forget:

• Office staff, night cleaners, maintenance, security guards
• Visitors, the general public
• Young or inexperienced workers
• Lone workers
• New and expectant mothers
• Disabled staff
• Contractors