Specialist cladding and flooring manufacturer Steni UK has won ISO 14001:2004 (1861EMS001) for its environmental management systems.

The company produces glass fibre reinforced polyester resin cladding panels and a flooring composite of glass fibre polyester resin and stone from its UK plant near Wrexham in North Wales where the local environmental officer is already a regular witness to Steni's independent emissions tests.

Steni gained the international standard from ISOQAR for its commitment to being environmentally conscious and identifying and acting on operations that interact with or affect the environment, such as the supply of raw materials, waste disposal, air emissions, use of energy and design of products.

Environmental manager Bryn Williams (pictured) led a team which developed systems to manage these aspects and minimise the company’s impact on the environment as well as ensure all relevant environmental legislation is complied with an ongoing basis.

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As part of this process, a number of environmental objectives were set and achieved, including a reduction in landfill waste of 23% and in electricity use of 18.5% in 2009 compared with 2008. The use of Styrene has also been reduced by 54% in the same period.

In addition, all of the staff at Steni's Ruabon plant have undergone third-party training in environmental and chemical awareness and spillage control and are independently and individually tested on a regular basis for workstation chemical emissions, dust annihilation and noise levels under CoSHH regulations.

As well as being responsible for environmental issues and practices in the workplace, they are also encouraged to embrace them at home and Steni management have implemented procedures to help them with this.

As part of the ISO 14001 certification, Steni analysed its impact on the environment generally by reviewing its process and cleaning activities and replacing less environmentally friendly products. And closer to its own home, the company works side by side with the local authority’s environmental officer and North Wales fire service to develop optimum environmental and safety procedures.

Mr Williams said: "Large organisations have been actively encouraging their suppliers to adopt a more environmentally friendly approach to their manufacturing processes for some time but I am pleased to say this is an area we were already actively involved in. The environmental management standard will run alongside our existing quality management standard which was another concept that we as a progressive company actively embraced."

(CD)