EQUINOX GAINS ISO 14001 ENVIRONMENTAL ACCREDITATION

9th September 2009

Equinox are proud to have been successful in their quest to achieve ISO 14001 accreditation on 1st September 2009, the international standard for Environmental Management Systems (EMS) by the British Standards Institute. ISO 14001 is the key international standard in the ISO 14000 series standards, and specifies a process for controlling and improving a company's environmental performance. Increasingly, it is becoming a factor in the tender process, reflecting mounting concern for sustainability in the provision of security and related services.

However, this was not Equinox's main motivating factor. Sophie Walker, Health, Safety, and Quality Manager comments: "Environmental impact is an increasingly important global issue and it is essential that all organisations are committed to minimising the effect of their activities on the environment. This accreditation is a powerful tool that allows us to focus our environmental efforts on internationally-accepted criteria and promote best practice. It is a proactive solution to improving both environmental performance and enhancing business efficiency. Our environmental responsibility has increasingly become an integral part of our core business values and strategy, rather than an isolated function"

Four months ago Equinox embarked upon the accreditation processes and formed an Environmental Green Team to move this project forward and to ensure that their Environmental Policy and initiatives are maintained, developed and promoted across the business. They have been working on a number of initiatives such as:

• Creating an Environmental Training Programme
• Purchasing wherever possible only Fairtrade tea, coffee and sugar
• Paper reduction and recycling schemes
• Plastic cup and bottle recycling
• IT  / Mobile phone equipment recycling
• Uniform recycling
• Batteries recycling
• Refilling toner cartridges rather than buying new ones
• Energy saving scheme (e.g. computer monitors must be switched off overnight and when not in use for more   than one hour; lights must be switched off when not in use, Dishwasher use limited )

Equinox also took this opportunity to rework their Environmental Objectives for the year

• To reduce consumption of paper per head of staff
• Investing in a new printer and duplex photocopier to reduce ink and paper usage
• To increase awareness of active commuting and the environmental impacts of work related transport
• To reduce the amount of waste Equinox sends to landfill, and to increase the reuse and recycling of resources
• To reduce electricity consumption per head of staff
• To increase the expertise of the Environmental Health and Safety department, and use that expertise to educate and raise awareness both internally and externally
• To reduce the amount of water consumption throughout Head Office
• To begin calculating our carbon footprint, implement a carbon reduction programme, with the overall objective to become carbon neutral in the future
• Be a responsible member of the Community

Sophie Walker concludes: "This is another milestone successfully gained in the Equinox Continuous Improvement Programme. The next stage of our development this year is to ensure that we attain OHSAS 18001 followed by BSENISO 27001/2009".