Introduction to the policy
Dear colleagues,
From the climate emergency to single-use plastics to the decline of once-common wildlife, environmental concerns are rightly pushing their way to the forefront of our minds.
We know that many of you are keen to do the right thing, and we are here to support you.
With this in mind with have developed in conjunction with staff members a formalised policy statement and responsibilities for ensuring Oil Analysis Laboratories limits its environmental impact as much as possible.
We look forward to ensuring new and exciting ways to build upon this policy to further benefit the environment and surrounding communities.
Kind Regards
A. Cutler
What is an Environmental Management system (EMS)?
The system is designed to collect all activities we perform as a lab that fall within regulatory guidelines and to limit the impact we have on the environment. No matter what the activity, we as a business should always consider the environmental impacts in all decisions we take from top to bottom of the business. The policies we adopt help manage this process and identify areas for improvement so we not only meet but exceed expectations in terms of our ability to reduce our environmental impact.
Who is responsible for the EMS?
We each have a role to play in reducing the impact, but the ultimate responsibility will fall upon the senior management team to ensure the implementation of the policy frameworks.
What areas are we trying to target most?
The key areas we have identified as a business we can act upon most to reduce our impact are below. Still, reviews with staff in the business will regularly be performed for additional areas that can be improved too:
- Energy usage
- Water
- Lab Waste (oil/solvent/chemical) and Office waste (paper, plastic etc)
Energy Usage
With energy being a finite resource and much of the energy in the UK is generated not being carbon neutral, the reduction should always be the first line of attack in reducing our environmental impact.
Staff will notice we have already introduced areas such as motion-sensitive lighting and auto power off of instruments, computers and PC monitors after the final tests are performed each day, which has significantly reduced our power consumption. What is more, the savings from this project have paid for other projects such as use of recycled paper towels etc.
Some additional advice for reducing energy usage in your department are as follows
- Switch off electrical equipment and unnecessary lights when not in use
- Encourage staff to close windows and external doors when heating is on
- Encourage staff to minimise the use of electric heaters and fans
- Consumer items such as lab screens, monitors to choose the maximum energy efficiency rating where available.
- Use of heat capture technology for heat generated by instrumentation to warm lab during winter.
Water management
Water management involves both reducing our usage and avoiding causing any environmental impact from our activities.
Although using the correct laboratory-designated waste routes to ensure oils/solvents do not enter water drainage may seem an obvious part of our daily operations, it is worth stating this explicitly in our policies. Oil Analysis Laboratories take this point extremely seriously and we believe in delivering zero impact to our environment. To ensure this all lab staff as part of their training will be directed to appropriate designated sinks for oil / solvent / water waste to avoid any risk of cross-contamination. Lab team leaders will also periodically spot-check all general sink areas such as kitchens for evidence of contamination and CCTV will be reviewed if misuse is suspected. Carelessness or deliberately using the wrong designated liquid waste route by any employee will result in disciplinary action against the individual up to and including termination of employment, for failure to use the correct waste routes.
In addition to separating waste correctly, the amount of water consumed in general should be limited. Water shortages are now becoming more common across the country and employees should avoid use of continuous running taps for cooling in preference of recirculating coolers etc.
Lab Waste management
All laboratories to some extent, will create waste as part of their processes. Our moral duty is to reduce and limit the level to which this occurs. Waste can be split into two categories
- General business waste
- Laboratory specific waste
General waste management
As with all waste streams, the principle of reducing, reusing and recycling should be adopted wherever possible. For all our waste Oil Analysis Laboratories shall only use registered waste handling providers with ISO 14001 accreditations or equivalent to handle and sort our waste.
In addition, some general guidance to be discussed in your teams include:
- Ensure waste is sorted, stored and disposed of appropriately
- Promote and encourage recycling across the Town/Parish
- Use recyclable, compostable and/or recycled products where possible
- Reduce usage of non-electronic marketing materials
- Minimise the amount of printing and minimise the amount of waste paper
- Only use electronic communication for customer communication e.g. invoices etc
- Minimise pollution and prevent where possible (including light, noise, solids, liquids and chemicals
Laboratory Specific waste
All the guidance here is in addition to all legal and regulatory compliance requirements for our laboratory processes. These guidelines do not mitigate or remove the need for good laboratory practices as is expected of all staff members. All staff should be aware of the following information and it is the responsibility of team leaders to disseminate this information within their teams and with new starters as part of their induction training.
- Under no circumstances should any “sample” waste be discharged to sewers – see water advice above.
- All laboratory chemical/hydrocarbon/solvent waste is to be collected in appropriately labelled drums with spill collection protection in the event of a leak.
- The laboratory may only use the services of registered ISO 14001 or equivalent waste handlers for oil/solvent waste to ensure the waste disposal routes are correct and in line with company guidelines.
- The lab should maintain at least 1/3 remaining capacity of any collection to ensure the laboratory never runs out of storage for waste before a collection.
- Containers for lab waste must clearly be labelled as waste with smaller waste containers on every bench to ensure staff always have access to waste sample disposal areas.
- The lab should adopt the “if in doubt, treat as lab waste”. Even when a customer sends e.g. tap water for analysis, the waste of this process is to be treated as laboratory waste rather than general business waste.
Continuous improvements
This environmental policy is merely the minimum requirement we expect of our team, and each manager of a section will regularly review with their team potential improvements that can be achieved to bring our company closer to carbon neutral / carbon negative.
