I have been working with Bristol Waste Company on behalf of ConsultQA for over 18 months on various projects and the latest one has been the implementation of an environmental management system which started in January 2018. We recently had a successful Stage 2 audit with Approachable Certification with no findings which is brilliant news – the Stage 2 audit was quite complicated and involved 6 days of auditing with 2 auditors across 6 different sites!

I started the project with a series of Baseline Environmental Assessments carried out at each of the 7 sites BWC operates, which range from a closed, capped and reclaimed landfill site (essentially a field of wild flowers!) to a very small city centre street cleansing depot to large complex sites with several different business operations. These assessments provided a huge amount of information, including the history of each site which was very interesting and helped us to identify the significant environmental risks and impacts. The assessments also enabled us to identify positive impacts such as the outreach activities carried out by the Community Engagement Team and the various treatment contracts which are chosen to maximise recycling and recovery of materials and energy.

I worked closely with the Development and Sustainability Manager during the project and was delighted to receive the following testimonial:

“Helen’s support and guidance throughout this process have been invaluable. It is so useful to have a fresh pair of eyes looking at things from an impartial perspective and helping us to identify and implement improvements across the business.”

We have now planned a quarterly integrated internal audit schedule combined with a quarterly management review meeting and I’m looking forward to working with BWC over the next 12months. I just need to persuade them to carrying out an ISO 45001 implementation project so they have got a matching set!