Three ways to help your company go greener with BSI

September is the busiest month of the year for environmental events. Among the crop are International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer (16 September), World Water Monitoring Day (18 September), Zero Emissions Day (21 September), World Cleanup Day (21 September) and World Car Free Day (22 September) .

In addition, this year there’s been more change than usual. In September the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg met the former President of the United States Barack Obama to speak about climate change. People might know her from her protests outside the Swedish Parliament in August 2018, which sparked a school climate strike movement known as ‘Fridays for Future’. More recently she led the successful second mass protest called ‘Activism works’.

In honour of having a month dedicated to raising awareness of global climate change, here we discuss three ways to get your organization involved.

1)      Install a roof garden

If you have seen green oasis plots growing on the roofs or tops of buildings, you might think that it is quite an aesthetically pleasing and easy way to go greener. You’d be right. Because urban environments have such limited ‘green space opportunities', companies have broken ‘the sky’s the limit’ thinking with ingenious uses for passive spaces.

What are the benefits?

• Removing air pollution and cooling the air
• Reduced noise
• Reducing the amount of water run-off

What people don’t know is that, in most of these cases, the vegetation is actually disconnected from the underlying ground. That's where a ‘substrate’ comes in: specially engineered soil that grows the greenery over the long term. It caters for getting the right pH levels, drainability, porosity and density.

Because substrates vary according to climate, location and vegetation, getting the perfect substrate for the best performance is vital. BSI has provided a standard that helps you discover yours by supplying the testing tools to help you choose the right substrate suitable for the UK.

Learn more about BS 8616:2019, Specification for performance parameters and test methods for green roof substrates.

2)      Optimize your business areas to reduce waste

In business we’re used to using resources in a linear economy – a ‘take, make, dispose’ model that has been prevalent for many decades. There is now a wide move to a circular economy model, where businesses are improved though the way they recover and reuse resources.

The idea behind this is that any company in any industry can look inwardly at its current processes and see where it can keep resources in use for the longest possible time and to look for other opportunities where it can extract the maximum value from others.

The standard BS 8001:2017, Framework for implementing the principles of the circular economy in organizations — Guide, was designed to guide you through this activity. It explains the six principles of the circular economy and provides guidance on how to make each one a core part of business operations. (Look at this blog for a sneak peak at the six principles and to see how the circular economy can be applied in the food sector.)

What are the benefits?

• Operation areas involving these resources become productive with less, making innovative use of budgets or reducing costs overall.
• The reuse of resources creates more sustainability as operations are not based on dwindling supplies.
• Eco-conscious buyers can feel strongly aligned to a brand that echoes their values.

(Current users will be pleased to know that BS 8001:2017 was a finalist at the edie Sustainability Leaders Awards 2018, the prestigious awards that celebrate sustainability excellence and innovation. How’s that for making a mark?!)

3)      Implement a sustainable energy management system

BSI has produced a fantastic report on the topic of sustainability, looking at the way that organizations are using standards to help support the goals of the UK Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan (25YEP) for England, ‘A Green Future: Our 25 Year Plan to Improve the Environment’ and UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The free report gives you access to in-depth insightful articles from experts and offers an overview of what standards are there to support organizations in making internal changes. At the heart of the work is BS EN ISO 14001:2015, Environmental management systems — Requirements with guidance for use.

What are the benefits?

• This standard guides you through implementing an environment management system to help an organization reduce its environmental impact as well as grow its business.
• Alongside this there is advice on which standards to look to in order to manage carbon, biodiversity, energy and water, so you can tailor the advice on hand for your specific needs.

Read the full BSI Sustainability Report.