Why do we need an Environmental & Energy Management System?
There are many benefits to having an externally certified environmental and energy management system (EEMS) in place. Firstly, it gives us reassurance that we understand and are meeting the wide range of compliance obligations that apply to the Estates & Facilities division. This includes extensive legislation on topics such as waste management, F-gases and energy compliance but also compliance obligations from other sources, such as meeting staff and student’s expectations. It also shows that the systems and procedures that we operate meet international standards and are externally verified to ensure this remains the case. The Sustainable Skills Survey undertaken annually by SOS UK found that 89% of students agree that their place of study should actively incorporate and promote sustainable development and having an externally certification is one of the mechanisms we use to meet this expectation.
What is Required?
The ISO management system standards are based on a Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle. Firstly, an organisation needs to understand the context in which they operate, how they impact on the environment and the compliance obligations they need to meet. Once this planning work is completed the next stage is to agree a policy statement, detailing the organisations intent, and high-level objectives, targets and management plans to achieve these objectives. This includes making sure activities are adequately controlled and staff trained on these procedures. Finally, the standards involve a self-checking process through internal audits and a senior level management review of the effectiveness of the system.
What does our EEMS Cover?
Our EEMS covers all the activities of the Estates and Facilities Division. This includes the entire geographic coverage of the Peel and Frederick Road Campuses as well as the areas we occupy at Media City. All departments are included such as Maintenance, Sports, Commercial Services, Capital Projects, Administration, Building Services, Stores, Security and Landscape Management.
Who undertakes Our ISO Audits?
We have used a UKAS accredited organisation, NQA, to undertake our ISO audits for several years. This ensures that our chosen auditors are externally monitored and meet approved standards for auditing against the international standards. NQA are also able to certify us to Eco-Campus, which is a staged approach to ISO 14001.
The external audit process is based on 3-year cycle over which all areas of our EEMS must be audited. Every 3 years there is a re-certification audit that is longer and more in depth, with a shorter surveillance audit taking place in the intervening years.
Our last surveillance audit took place on the 4th and 5th September and covered leadership, legal compliance, maintenance, emergency response, energy and waste management as well as a tour of our Peel and Frederick Road campuses including the Sports Centre, Security and our SSEE building.
What was the outcome of the Audit?
In September 2024, we were delighted to be recommended for ongoing certification to both ISO 14001, ISO 50001 and Eco-Campus Platinum for another year, which means we can continue to use the approved UKAS logos below.
The auditors provided feedback during a closing meeting to a wide range of Estates management and were extremely positive in their comments, including raising two rare formal positive findings that recognise exceptionally good practice related to:
- Local Area Sustainability (EEMS) Action Plans produced for all Estates departments based on process flow diagrams that break the inputs and outputs into tabular format and identifies improvement actions to contribute to our broader campus wide objectives. The auditors commented that ‘this is an excellent way of making the aspects register relevant to those involved in the process’ and
- ‘The Energy Review and University Energy monitoring system was deemed one of the most comprehensive systems and associated energy reviews the auditors had come across’.
A small number of opportunities for improvement were also raised to ensure we continually improve our performance going forwards.
What happens next?
The University will welcome NQA back on campus in July 2025 for our 5-day recertification audit when we will involve an even wider range of Estates activities and departments. This will include a visit to our Media City campus as well as a more detailed review of how we consider the environment and energy in the design of our new buildings.
Further Information
Please contact Emma Goodchild (e.j.goodchild@salford.ac.uk) or Phil Harris (p.h.harris@salford.ac.uk) in our Estates Environmental Sustainability Team for further information.t Emma Goodchild at e.j.goodchild@salford.ac.uk, or Phil Harris at p.b.harris@salford.ac.uk.