EMS 01 Internal Procedures Issue 1, Revision 1 1 Contents 1 Contents... 1 2 Version Control... 1 3 Information... 1 4 Clauses covered by this procedure... 2 5 Purpose... 2 6 Scope... 2 7 Procedure... 2 8 Assessment of the Significance of Impacts... 3 9 Responsibility/Ownership... 5 10 Definitions... 5 2 Version Control VERSION HISTORY REVISION DATE BY APPROVED 1 15 April 2008 Implementation of Procedure LP JB 3 Information This Environmental Aspects and Impacts Procedure is available to view on the company s intranet; the site Health Safety & Environmental Advisor will ensure that all users are informed of any amendments to this procedure, via the email system or the company s Health Safety & Environmental Noticeboards. Uncontrolled copies of this manual may be distributed by employees from MagHansen, PollardHansen and AccentHansen to their customers. These copies will not be updated in line with those shown above and will be identified as uncontrolled copies. The status of any copies that will be reviewed and updated will be highlighted within the Version History above. Page 1 of 5.doc
4 Clauses covered by this procedure ISO 14001:2004 4.3.1 5 Purpose The purpose of this procedure is to ensure that all environmental aspects (operations and activities) carried out at the sites in Leeds, Oldham and Enfield are identified and that the significance of their environmental impacts are assessed to permit improvement objectives and the implementation of necessary control measures. These procedures address routine and non-routine activities, including contractors and visitors, having access to the workplace. 6 Scope This procedure covers all environmental aspects and impacts undertaken at MagHansen, PollardHansen and Accent Hansen which creates, controls or has reasonable influence over. These will include those: relating to current, past and proposed future activities occurring under normal, abnormal or reasonably foreseeable emergency conditions 7 Procedure 7.1 Aspects & Impacts Identification The Health Safety & Environmental Advisor is responsible for carrying out an annual review of the overall environmental aspects and impacts of all operations and activities at the sites in Leeds, Oldham and Enfield. Aspects are defined as those operations or activities over which the above sites has either control or significant influence and which have the capacity to affect the environment. Impacts are defined as the effects upon the environment, positive or negative, which the environmental aspects of the operations and activities produce. Separate reviews shall be carried out as required to assess the aspects related to any new projects, intended changes in operational practice, alterations to legislation and other foreseeable factors. The results of all reviews shall be recorded as a Register of Environmental Aspects and Impacts (EMS 01a). The Health Safety & Environmental Advisor is responsible for ensuring that this document is kept up to date. The annual review shall be timed to produce a list of prioritised environmental impacts for consideration during the setting of environmental objectives and targets for the following year The review shall identify environmental aspects by an assessment of the operations, Page 2 of 5.doc
activities and services, together with consideration of the actual and potential effects of: Air emissions to atmosphere Water usage and discharges to surface water groundwater and sewers Land contamination caused by spillages, etc. The production, re-use, recycling and disposal of controlled and special wastes The storage and management of materials Activities upon local ecology of operations, sites and premises The visual impact of sites and buildings Environmental noise Energy use and management Use of transport and vehicles Materials used Organisation & site information Legal issues and other requirements Existing environmental management Raw materials Packaging Office activities Landscaping and infrastructure Other relevant issues such as odours, particulates, lighting & pests 8 Assessment of the Significance of Impacts 8.1 Once the impacts have been identified they are prioritised in terms of their environmental impacts to assist in using them for setting objectives and targets and for identifying operational control procedures. Each aspect identified shall be assigned a significance rating to indicate the relative importance of its related environmental impacts. The significance rating shall be used to define those impacts which shall be controlled through environmental objectives and targets, or by the implementation of operational control procedures 8.2 Impacts shall be assessed by the Health Safety & Environmental Advisor using the following method: All aspects which are legitimate concerns of major stakeholders and the company shall be regarded as significant, if necessary controls have not been implemented. All aspects which are subject to environmental legislation shall be regarded as significant, and therefore noted as having a high impact/risk, if there is a breach or potential breach of legislation. All aspects where insufficient information is available to make a reasoned judgement shall be regarded as significant until further information is available. Where none of the above apply, the aspects and related impacts shall be evaluated by the risk assessment method specified below: 8.3 Evaluation of Risk: The risk evaluation process is to be carried out by competent personnel The risk evaluation methodology is assessed using the scoring tables shown below Page 3 of 5.doc
CRITERA = FREQUENCY 1 Negligible usage, infrequent operation 2 Low usage / Normal Operation 3 Moderate usage / frequent Operation 4 Very high usage / Emergency Conditions CRITERA = LEGISLATION 1 No relevant legislation 2 Complies with legislation 3 Potential Breach / lack of awareness 4 Breaching legislation CRITERA = ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECT 1 Insignificant environmental effect 2 Minor environmental effort 3 Moderate / Potential major environmental effect 4 Major environmental effect CRITERA = CONCERN 1 Insignificant / No concern 2 Limited / Minor Concern 3 Moderate / Potential major concern 4 Major Company concern CRITERA = CONTROLS 1 Full control / no need for control 2 Moderate control 3 Limited / Minor control 4 No Controls CRITERA = FACTOR TOTAL LEVEL OF SIGNIFICANCE 1-9 Low level of concern 10-15 Medium level of concern 16-20 High level of Concern The intention is to reduce impacts to "as low as reasonably practicable" (ALARP) Page 4 of 5.doc
8.4 Having assigned a priority score for each environmental aspect and impact the following table suggests timeframes for managing different priority environmental aspects and impacts (actual timeframes should be agreed with process owners). Risk Action Timeframe High Short Term Within 3 months Medium Medium Term Within 6 months Low Long Term 1 year + 9 Responsibility/Ownership The Health Safety & Environmental Advisor will ensure that this procedure is reviewed and updated accordingly. All Supervisors will be responsible for ensuring that this procedure is carried out. All Managers and Directors of all the business units via the Health and Safety Department will be responsible to ensure that the business meets the requirements of the ISO14001:2004 standard. Employees are to conform to the control measures detailed for their specific department activity. 10 Definitions Environmental Aspects elements of an organisations activities or products or services that can interact with the environment. Environmental Impact any change to the organisation, whether adverse or beneficial, wholly or partially resulting from an organisation s environmental aspects. Page 5 of 5.doc