April 2004

Post et2004 Report

Last week's et2004 exhibition was an opportunity for us to gauge the mood of people within the environmental industry towards the numerous issues that face organisations as part of their ongoing business development strategies.

A number of common themes were apparent during the three days. This article is a brief summary of these key issues as we see them today.

Hazardous Waste

The Environment Agency presented a number of seminars on the changes that are currently being implemented, highlighting many of the issues that are being raised. A number of visitors expressed concerns regarding the classification of waste and the apparent anomalies between the definitions of waste in different countries. There are significant concerns that some "waste" will be priced out of the UK market due to the massive reduction in the number of landfill sites willing to take waste and this will provide a competitive advantage to European based competitors.

Integrated Management Systems

The majority of people who visited our stand have completed Environmental Management Systems (EMS) and are now looking for ways to integrate them into their overall Business Management Systems and to deploy the policies throughout the workforce. The challenge seems to be similar to the one most Quality Managers went through ten years ago, getting the whole workforce to accept that it is not the Environmental Manager’s "job" to run the EMS on his / her own.

Corporate Reporting

Although the UK is leading the way in Corporate Reporting (environmental; health & safety; social; ethical; supply chain etc.) less than half of the FTSE 250 issue complete corporate reports. Organisations with significant environmental impacts are the most forthcoming with their reports, primarily due to the regulatory regime they face. Other companies still seem to be unclear on the potential benefits of corporate reporting and what needs to be covered.

IPPC

Discussions with people on both sides of the fence, i.e. issuing permits and writing applications indicate to us that this is still a major issue with many companies, especially those falling under the IPPC regime for the first time. The time and effort required to submit the applications is seen as particularly onerous on the mid-sized organisations who only have to do it for one site and therefore have a very steep learning curve and then very little involvement until the time for the next amendment.

One issue was raised on several occasions. Local authorities visiting our stand consistently described a situation where they have neither the knowledge or resources to review the A (2) and B IPPC permit applications submitted to them. A number of visitors required to make A (1) permit applications complained that the sector guidance is either late or inadequate.

Energy

There was consistent interest in the systems offered by Pro Enviro for the analysis and reporting of energy data from main and sub meters as required under the terms of Climate Change Levy Agreements. Many now see the future potential of accounting and trading carbon and wanted to know more about how this can be done.