7 Business Benefits of ISO 14001 Certification

Leading consultancy Equas specialises in helping organisations improve their management systems, thereby enabling them to become more efficient and achieve more of their strategic objectives.  Their simple and highly cost-effective methodologies have enabled hundreds of companies and organisations to achieve ISO and other internationally-recognised standards and to gain all the benefits that these standards were designed for.  Here they outline 7 reasons to gain certification to ISO 14001.

1. Boost Your Chances of Winning Public Sector Tenders

This is one of the most obvious and compelling reasons for companies to seek ISO 14001 certification. Many public sector bodies regard having this standard as a pre-requisite in the assessment of potential suppliers.

2. Increase Your Chances of Gaining Private Sector Contracts

The trickle-down effect of the public sector’s focus on environmental sustainability means that many private sector firms with public sector contracts require their sub-contractors and suppliers to be ISO 14001 certified too.  In this way, certification to ISO 14001 can be critical in winning private sector contracts.

3. Ensure You Are Meeting Regulatory and Legal Requirements

Depending on the sector you are working in, there may be a variety of rules and regulations you have to abide by. The rigour of the ISO 14001 standard ensures that you are adhering to all of these and avoids any potential banana skins down the line.

4. Lower Your Insurance Premiums

When applying all of the requirements of ISO 14001, you are making your business safer and therefore lower risk.  For this reason, business insurance premiums can be lowered significantly. Partly due to the extra factor of having third party verification, many companies have saved money on their insurance premiums thanks to having ISO 14001 certification.

5. Reduce Your  Consumption of Raw Materials

The ISO 14001 standard is concerned with the impact your company has on the environment. Reduced consumption of raw materials is a fundamental factor here.  Successful implementation of ISO 14001 is likely to have positive effects on streamlining your use of resources.

6. Lower Your Waste Levels and Unnecessary Work

Due to the fact that ISO 14001 is designed to improve your operations, more efficient processes are typically identified through applying its principles. This in turn lowers the amount of mistakes that are made by your business and therefore the amount of waste and unnecessary work that is undertaken.

7. Increase Your Profitability

A result of reducing consumption and waste is the obvious effect on costs. Although there will be a cost involved in achieving certification, over time you will be able to see a positive impact on your bottom line.