As of February, 39 US Schenker, Inc. facilities have been awarded the ISO 14001 certification. Just one year ago, only two facilities held the certification: Freeport and JFK. We are very proud of our achievement, as it places us among a handful of Freight Forwarding / Logistics companies worldwide to be ISO 14001 certified.
Getting to the point where a facility can undergo the necessary audit to become ISO certified involves more than just a pile of binders with policies in them. It’s only possible with the commitment and hard work of many people in the organization.
A key success factor for Schenker was having a truly dedicated management team and staff that were absolutely committed to achieving and maintaining the designation. A special thanks to the offices that were audited this year: Hartford, Orlando, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Chicago, Moline, JFK and Freeport. The DNV (Det Norske Veritas) auditor assigned to us was very impressed with the involvement and awareness of our employees and management.
One of the major requirements to obtaining certification is having an Environmental Management System (EMS) in place. We took our already established EMS and made some upgrades, creating the new Lean EMS Interface back in 2012. This replaced the traditional Environmental Policy Manual and gave users a simple-to-use flow chart design, with immediate access to all of our environmental programs, policies, processes and forms. The response from the field was very positive. With the training and continued support from Environmental Management, users were equipped with the knowledge and know-how to wow any auditor that crossed their paths… and they did just that!
The fact that we made this investment, indicates our commitment to continually monitor, manage, and improve our environmental performance. We must show that:
- We have identified significant environmental aspects of our operations. We currently monitor Electricity and Heating Gas use, and Paper Consumption.
- We are taking steps to control these aspects. We have Energy / Waste monitoring tools that we utilize (Environmental Data Reports, TORCH).
- And that those steps are proving effective. We review Environmental Data Reports quarterly.
Besides training employees, and utilizing green practices around the workplace, we plan on continually improving our environmental performance by adding transparency to the quarterly sustainability figures submitted by the branches. By getting creative with contests and rewarding offices for their energy achievements, we predict nothing but great things for our sustainable future.
