ISO 50001 – OUR WAY

Last month a few of our Associates got together and we realised we have a dream team for helping organisations work towards ISO 50001, the new International Energy Management System (EnMS) Standard.

If designed well, an EnMS can help make the whole process as friction-free and attractive as possible for everyday champions to get more involved and do their bit.

Sarah Parker, one of our Associates, talks about how to make the most out of the opportunity.

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ISO 50001 was released in June 2011 and fully replaces the, now withdrawn, European Standard BS EN 16001 on the same subject.

We welcome it – it helps organisations take a systematic approach to continual improvement and assure against compliance requirements by providing the top-down structures – as long as you also think about the people side of delivering change and build this into the system.

The more people who are engaged – and effectively contributing in a managed and coordinated way – means less stress in hitting targets and bigger savings.

Is this standard right for you?

We believe ISO 50001 has many advantages, whether an organisation is looking to improve an energy management system already in place, build on ISO14001 or whether it’s implementing a system for the first time.

ISO 50001 specifies requirements for an organisation to establish, implement, maintain and continuously improve its energy management system.  It allows organisations to take a systematic approach to continual improvement in energy performance: cutting costs, reducing CO2 emissions and delivering better all-round service.

Even for organisations that have been committed to energy management for a long time, or are already certified to ISO 140001, case studies have shown that the more formalised process required by the new standard can lead to new opportunities and procedures being identified and implemented.

The key to this standard is the ISO approach it has adopted – the Plan, Do, Check, Act :

Plan – audit performance, set policy and create your energy plan.  Audits need to include talking to people on the ground and recommendations for the vision to help create green sparks, inspire everyday champions and develop momentum.

Do – as the term implies, this is about allocating key roles and responsibilities and implementing the plan. Your approaches should help inject urgency into the process. Plans need to include skills development and training for everyday champions – ie the ‘big what’s in it for them’.

Check – this is your opportunity to monitor and measure operational performance, review non conformities and take necessary corrective action.   You should ask EnMS users for their feedback on how well you are doing and start to put in place an internal steering team.

Act – this is the review part of the cycle to ensure continual improvement and is traditionally about standards and assurance. The challenge is to keep people hungry to do more – and the best way to do this is to make it about discovery, adding a positive dimension and approach into the process.

ISO 50001’s robust structure is rigorous and effective and has sufficient flexibility to work for a wide range of organisations to help reduce costs, manage risk and demonstrate compliance to key stakeholders.

To make the most of it, we believe you need to blend leadership capabilities into the design of the management system in a way that effectively brings together the technical, operational and behavioural aspects of change.

We have pulled together a dream team of Associates to help organisations work towards ISO 50001 accreditation, whether it’s through external verification or self-evaluation and declaration.

 

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