Sustainability Management Strategies – Create a Site Sustainability Management Policy

Every site needs a policy statement to set the scene for the site actions and to make the commitment formal.

The Sustainability Management Policy should be one of the fundamental site policies alongside policies such as: 

• Health and Safety.
• Quality.
• Environmental.
• Energy.
• Other operational policies, e.g., Anti-Slavery.

The Sustainability Policy can be the ‘umbrella’ policy that refers to all of these policies and puts them into the environmental, social and economic context. The basics of all these policies will be similar and it is possible to create a Master Policy Manual for all of the site’s policies. This can include all of the policies for easy reference. 

The policy sets the framework for almost all of the work that follows and is an essential component in logically working to improve sustainability in all areas. 

Action:

• Create a formal site Sustainability Management Policy. This costs very little; it is keeping to it that costs money.
• The Sustainability Management Policy should include a statement of commitment to sustainability and become part of the company’s operations.
• Use the ‘umbrella’ sustainability policy to refer to and link to other existing policies involving sustainability.
• The policy should be distributed to all employees to raise awareness of the importance of sustainability to the company and the employees. This will establish good practice as company policy.
• The policy should be publicly displayed and available to all staff.

Dr. Robin Kent is the author of ‘Sustainability Management in Plastics Processing’, published by the British Plastics Federation and Managing Director of Tangram Technology Ltd. (www.tangram.co.uk), consulting engineers for energy and sustainability management in plastics processing.

Also read “Sustainability Management Strategies – Top Management Commitment“