APC Overnight's network is being praised for its moves to protect the environment with Crawley-based APC Eezehaul the first depot to be awarded ISO 14001 environmental management accreditation. This is an important milestone in the development of the depot and was achieved following months of stringent assessment of the company's environmental impact. With ISO 14001, APC Eezehaul has unequivocal proof that company is tightly managing and reducing its carbon footprint.
"We had to assess every area of the business - this went well beyond an examination of procedures and delved right into the practical aspects of how much recycling we did and how much more we can do, fuel usage, energy consumption, and waste reduction. It took -and will continue to take - a lot of commitment, but we are dedicated to achieving our goals as an environmentally aware organisation," says Daniella Tooke, Senior Operations Administrator.
Eezehaul says that customers are looking for partners who not only can prove that they comply with environmental legislation but can also demonstrate that they have proactive sustainable business practices.
"Our ISO 14001 certificate helps us to present our environmental commitment to existing and new clients. It really helps to drive home the message that we are dedicated to reducing wastage and by partnering with us they can maintain their own environmental credentials. In addition, by taking control of waste we are proactively minimising operational costs all over the business," adds Daniella Tooke.
The path to ISO 14001 comprises many steps that result in major effects as Daniella Tooke highlights.
"Some of the steps we have taken may seem obvious, but all have made a big difference. Recycling paper, for example. We looked at what we actually did and what we could, and then we put a recycling scheme into practice. Within a week we could physically see what we had achieved. This has encouraged everyone to think about unnecessary printing and associated waste," she reports.
Jon Barber, Marketing Director, APC Overnight comments: "APC Eezehaul has set out a template for the entire APC Overnight network. We encourage each of our local depot partners to investigate how they may reduce their environmental impact also. As APC Eezehaul has demonstrated, small steps can lead to major reductions in the carbon footprint at a depot level and can help with reducing the nationwide impact of the network."