What Are The Benefits of ISO 50001 Certification

Enigma Industrial Services has been providing contract scaffolding services in the UK since 1935. The quality, safety, health, and environment policy is endorsed by the organisation’s Board and is regularly reviewed. The structured policy outlines the processes to ensure the delivery of a successful health and safety culture. Providing safe environments for employees and visitors across all the sites is the number one priority for the organisation.

Extending out from the policy is the Enigma Integrated Management System, which is certificated by the British Standards Institute to ISO 9001:2015 – Quality Management Systems, ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management Systems and ISO 45001:2018 Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) Management Systems.

To ensure continuous improvement and that Enigma Industrial Services complied with the British Government Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS), a mandatory energy assessment scheme for large organisations in the UK, the business chose to implement ISO 50001:2018 – Energy Management Systems.

The process started when the standard’s requirements were identified as part of the company’s environment legal register, which is used to demonstrate and ensure compliance with environmental legislation. The Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme Regulations 2014 (ESOS Regulations) is an energy assessment and has to be complied with by any company in UK that meets one or both of the following conditions: it employs 250 or more people or it has an annual turnover in excess of €50m; or an annual balance sheet total in excess of €43 m.

The company reviewed the requirements of ESOS, which provided various options for compliance. One option was for the company to show its ISO:5001 Energy Management System had been certificated by an accredited certification body.

This standard specifies the requirements for an organisation to establish, implement, maintain and improve an energy management system

This standard specifies the requirements for an organisation to establish, implement, maintain, and improve an energy management system (EnMS). Developing and implementing the EnMS, would enable Enigma Industrial Services to take a systematic approach in order to achieve continual improvement in the following areas: energy efficiency, energy use and consumption.

The objectives of ISO 5001:2018 – Energy Management Systems are:

• to minimise energy costs/waste without affecting production and quality, and
• to minimise environmental effects.

The road to compliance

Based on The Enigma Industrial Services’  2018 energy use data, identified fuel, electricity and gas as the organisation’s three main sources of energy,: with fuel being the Significant Energy Use (SEU). Developing the EnMS and Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS) in tandem, was essential to target the SEU and significantly reduce fuel usage. FORS is a national accreditation scheme, which measures fleet performance and aims to drive up standards across areas such as fuel efficiency, carbon emissions and road safety. FORS’ goal is to set best practice standards within the transport sector, and FORS-accredited firms are expected to deliver continual improvements, which integrates well with ISO certifications and business acumen.

Significant energy use (SEU) is a key concept within ISO 50001 and is defined as “energy use accounting for substantial energy consumption and/or offering considerable potential for energy performance improvement”. The SEU criteria are determined by the organisation during the data capture and management review.

In Enigma Industrial Services’ case, the gas and electricity use were insignificant in comparison with the fuel use but were still of sufficient significance to merit targeting improvements to reduce costs. Therefore the action plan was primarily focussed on identifying fuel use improvements with secondary focus given to targeting reductions in electricity and gas use such as the installation of passive infrared sensors (PIR sensors), the switch it off campaign and the replacement of obsolete boilers, which incurred excessive maintenance costs.

The Enigma Energy Strategy, covering 35 individual actions, was developed through a set of short-, medium- and long-term objectives to address the organisation’s energy use, particularly the SEU. Each objective involved defining and setting goals, determining actions to achieve the goals, and assigning the resources to execute the actions. The Energy Steering Group regularly reviewed the strategy for progress. Objectives included significantly reducing emissions and air pollutants from vehicles used in all Enigma operations by monitoring telemetric data and producing reports.

The plan was implemented, which included fitting the Quartex Tracking System to a fleet of vehicles to provide real-time tracking, speed analysis and driving styles (speed, braking, acceleration, idling). This supplied the ability to effectively plan routes, identify training needs and develop driver league tables – all with an aim of reducing fuel usage.

Strategies were implemented to review inefficient gas boilers for heating and replace with new technology boilers with long- term warranties, research and implement Passive Infrared Sensors to replace electric light switches, and additional research into portable solar panels to be fitted to fixed assets to further reduce energy use. Gas is currently used by the business to only heat the buildings.

Communication has been essential to raise awareness with employees. This has included a ‘Switch it off’ campaign, energy bulletins, and integrating asset inspections.

The benefits

The benefits Enigma Industrial Services found from effectively implementing an energy management system, based on real-time data, were:

• Fuel usage (2018 – 2019): 23 per cent reduction (138226.56 litres reduction)
• Electricity usage (2018 – 2019): 17 per cent reduction
• Gas usage (2018 – 2019): 3 per cent increase (due to winterisation).

Assuming the unit cost of a litre of fuel is 104.79 pence, the 23 per cent reduction equates to a saving of £144,847. The benefits of effectively implementing an energy management system, include:

• reduced operational and overhead costs lead to increased profitability;
• reduced air emissions, such as greenhouse gases;
• increased efficiency of energy sources;
• increased assurance of legal, internal compliance;
• variables affecting energy use and consumption are identified, and
• increased understanding of energy use and consumption via communication.

Some of the challenges faced by the company on this journey involved a lack of resources, difficulty in determining the energy baseline and energy performance indicators, and lack of management support or commitment.

These challenges were overcome through strategic thinking, involvement of interested parties, improved communication, better planning before implementation and a comprehensive analysis of the organisation’s requirements.

Attribute to original publisher/ publishing organization: Roy Rogers, CQP MCQI, QSHE and Energy Director at Enigma Industrial Services, https://www.quality.org/knowledge/benefits-iso-500012018-energy-management-systems