How to become green, and stay green

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Please take a look at our latest article on Business Green - my top tips on greening your business and maintaining those changes to feel long term benefits. 

I hope there's something in here that you can take away and implement - whether it's at home or work. 

 CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE

Feedback is welcome - get in touch via Twitter @GreenAchiever 

ISO 14001: It's not for everyone, especially SME's.

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ISO 14001 makes it easy for large businesses to demonstrate their environmental credentials, however this heavyweight accreditation is not suitable for all businesses. Due to the cost of attaining ISO 14001, the various steps required to meet the criteria, and the year on year measurement of improvement, many SME's do not have the resources or finances to tackle and maintain it. 

Although it is credited with being the 'best' and most widely recognised environmental accreditation, the aforementioned SME's are missing out. Procurement teams will look for businesses to have some evidence of an Environmental Management System (EMS), and although ISO 14001 demonstrates this, many companies just want a certificate! 

That is why we provide Silver and Gold accreditation. It helps SME's to get a foot in the door and acts as a stepping stone for larger businesses approaching ISO 14001. We also make sure businesses keep moving forward by agreeing on actions for the future. To see a comparison between Silver/Gold and ISO 14001, click here. 

This post was inspired by an article from the Guardian 'ISO 14001: Loved by procurement, hated by SME's'.  It makes for a good read and explains the problems faced by small businesses looking to gain recognition for their environmental commitments.

If you are interested in what the Green Achiever Scheme can bring to your business, or are simply curious about environmental accreditation in general, give us a call on 01743 343 403 or e-mail info@greenachiever.co.uk 

How can I tell which natural products I can trust?

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The following stamps are ones you can trust - and should look for - on any beauty product claiming to be natural. 

ECOCERT

To gain the 'organic' logo, there must be a minimum of 95% plant-based ingredients and a minimum of 10% of all ingredients must be organically farmed. 

The coveted 'Eco Cert' cosmetics label requires a minimum of 50% plant-based ingredients in the formula and a minimum of 5% of all ingredients must be organic. 





THE SOIL ASSOCIATION

Products must use the maximum amount of organic ingredients (95%). A product can say it has organic ingredients if they add up to more than 70% of the formula, however they cannot claim it is an 'organic' product as a whole. 





NON-GMO

Simply requires products to contain no genetically modified organisms. 







NO ANIMAL TESTING


The rabbit logo means that no 'new' animal testing went on at ANY stage of the production process. To find companies that live up to these standards, this is a reliable directory: http://www.peta.org/living/beauty-and-personal-care/companies/default.aspx

Tickets.com - Gold Green Achievers

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Milton Keynes based Tickets.com, which specialises in providing integrated ticketing solutions designed to enable entertainment and sports organisations to sell tickets to consumers using their own brands, has attained gold standard status for the second year running. Having originally signed up to Green Achiever in May 2009, Tickets.com, which also has offices in Europe, the US, Asia Pacific and Africa, initially gained silver status in March 2011 and its first gold in June last year.

Daniel Burrows, internet services specialist at Tickets.com, said: “Despite many organisational changes, we have constantly maintained our level of environmental friendly commitment and will be implementing new ideas and plans for the future. For example, to better manage energy consumption, all employees and clients are now encouraged to reduce business travel by use of WebEx, training facilities are hired in a central location rather than have everyone travel long distances and the company has reduced its car pool from six to two.

“In the office, employees use energy efficient laptops and take them home with the power cable so as not to create residual energy draw happening while they are switched off. All the kettles have been replaced with a Burco to reduce the constant re-heating of water and all the chairs are now repaired and recycled rather than scrapped. We are currently engaging with our new landlord about us having more control over energy costs and consumption such as the lighting, ventilation and heating systems.”

www.tickets.com/uk