Client Objectives
Grant Thornton is an international business adviser that helps organisations achieve their goals.
- To examine and report its Environmental Impact and reduce its carbon footprinting.
- To know more about the ISO 14001 and how to implement an effective Environmental Management System (EMS).
Business Challenge
Grant Thornton’s corporate responsibility beliefs attach equal importance to community & environmental performances to financial & business ones, by developing the firm’s people and culture, both internally and externally with clients as well as suppliers, which they believe is critical to the success of any business. This principle is led from the top, with particular interest from the CEO, Sacha Romanovitch.
Green Element Approach
Green Element did their own internal audits to make sure that legal compliance for heating systems, waste documents, boilers, etc. were correct. The key elements of detrimental carbon emission impact were examined in detail, including the use of a ‘degree day analysis’ system to examine hour by hour the correlation between temperatures inside buildings and outside in order to achieve maximum efficiency for the heating and air-conditioning.
- Attained Internationally recognised certification ISO 14001
- Embedded an efficient Energy Management System adapted to the company’s requirements with tangible energy and waste-saving strategies embedded.
- Compliance with legal and advisory environmental reporting requirements.
- Implemented an efficient and accurate data collection system across all sites.
- Provided baseline consumption levels for selected environmental indicators.
- Improved internal communication of Environmental Performance Indicators and Environmental Progress.
Client Benefits
Green Element worked with Grant Thornton’s facilities management company as well as all employees across the UK with an office management responsibility. After the first year, a meeting was held with the Finance Director and Operations Director of Grant Thornton, and with Karen Higgins (Head of Sustainability), in order to verify the facts and figures that had been produced from the implementation of the EMS across the whole spectrum of carbon emission control.
The process of implementing the EMS and achieving ISO 14001 across all 40 plus sites in the UK took around 8 months. As Green Element undertook their own internal audits, Grant Thornton employees were not massively distracted at the beginning of the process. After the initial process, employee engagement was encouraged particularly to respect the environment as they go about their work, by considering efficiency and their carbon footprint, not only for the benefit of the balance sheet but also for the knowledge that they are, in a small way, helping to mitigate detrimental effects on the environment.
Green Element produces a management review summary each year, outlining revised objectives, methodology, new business challenges, and benefit achievements.
