UK businesses have maintained a leading level of take-up of energy and environmental management systems (EMS) standards according to new figures released by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO).
The 2015 results of the ISO survey have shown that the number of certificates for the ISO 50001 standard of energy management increased in the UK by almost four times (289% increase) between 2014 and 2015, with 1,464 awarded.
This represents a huge rise from the 376 ISO 50001 certificates deployed in 2014 and makes up the lion’s share of the total number awarded since 2011 in the UK (2,317). ISO has attributed this rapid growth to the fact that ISO 50001 is relatively new to the market
This places the UK second in the world for the number of energy management certifications from ISO behind Germany, which saw almost 6,000 certificates awarded to businesses last year alone.
Meanwhile, the UK held its position as fourth in the global league table for new ISO 14001 certificates for the international environmental management systems standard. It was placed behind China (114,303), Japan (26,069) and Italy (22,350), the only European country to see more certificates awarded.
In total, 142,788 ISO 14001 standards have been assigned to UK organisations since it was launched in 2004.
ISO 14001 remains one of the most popular standards under the standards certification scheme, with uptake having grown by 8% over the last year to reach 319,324 of accredited certificates. According to the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA), this is more than double the average 3% increase in the number of all ISO certificates issued in 2015.
Martin Baxter, IEMA’s chief policy advisor and the UK’s appointed representative to the ISO’s environmental management systems committee, said: “8% annual growth in ISO 14001 accredited certification shows that environmental management systems remain a key business performance tool for improving performance.
“This is particularly important as companies transition to the new EMS standard, which raises the bar on the expectations it sets for how organisations manage their environmental performance, and will lead to a positive outcome for businesses around the world.”
