Our Environmental Management System
Our Environmental Management System (EMS) has been ISO 14001 certified since 1997. It encompasses all of our offices and is based on the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle to ensure its continual improvement. The EMS is structured with Senior Management providing the strategic direction for sustainability performance. A Management Representative provides oversight of the operation of the system. The Steering Committee comprised of nine members, including a member from each office and functional business area, assists the Management Representative in implementation of the system. Project teams are appointed to support the Steering Committee in achieving objectives and targets and addressing systems improvement.
To download our sustainability policy, click here
First Environment's ISO 14001 Certificate of Approval
Every nine months, we perform internal and external audits of our EMS and our compliance with all applicable regulations. Members of the staff that are accredited ISO 14001 Lead Auditors oversee the internal audits and take the opportunity to provide other employees with auditing training and experience.
A certified registrar is retained to carry out our external audits. In the last two registrar audits, there were no nonconformance findings. In fact, several components of our system were recognized as being particularly strong, including our objectives and targets relating to sustainability, employee knowledge of those objectives and targets, the internal audit program, communication methods and programs, the green design of our new corporate headquarters, and the PCAN system.
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The Preventive and Corrective Action Notification (PCAN) System is an interesting feature of our EMS that provides an easy way for employees to suggest changes, opportunities for improvement, or report potential EMS nonconformances. Each submission is reviewed by the Steering Committee, teams are appointed to address the issue, and implementation of the resolution is subsequently carried out.
