Lewis | February 19, 2015 | 0 Comments
The International Organisation for Standardisation, abbreviated as ISO, is a standard-setting international body, made up of representatives from a number of national standards organisations, functioning as an independent, non-governmental membership organisation. It was founded in 1947, based in the Swiss city of Geneva, and has over 160 national members. They have set standards in almost every industry, which is widely-recognised at best practice, as these standards are influential in maintaining international trade. According to ISO themselves, this is because the specifications for products, services and systems they provide ensure quality, safety and efficiency in whichever industry they have outlined standards for.
To be ISO-certified is something very prestigious; it shows that your company is following best practice standards and this appeals to certain stakeholders a company may have. To be able to achieve this accreditation, a company needs to meet a number of criteria, which vary according to industry, certification, and the standard itself. Here at Oakleigh Manor, a large part of our environmental and waste policy is to achieve ISO14001 certification, which is an environmental management standard. This was referenced in a blog post from last week, which you can view here: https://oakleighmanor.com/sustainability-going-green-the-business-within/. To work towards this, we apply our environmental and waste policy very vigorously, and taking the courses whilst using the resources and services available. To see more on our environmental policy, please visit https://oakleighmanor.com/about/.
The prestige of being ISO certified can be best shown by how many companies based in the UK, and throughout the world, are striving for it. According to a document produced by ISO, which you can view here, in 2010 the UK had 14,346 certificates issued; that’s the fifth-most in the world, behind China, Japan, Spain and Italy respectively. That is an annual increase of 3,434 certificates, which is the second-largest growth rates in the world, again behind China. And this is only for ISO14001 accreditation! This proves how many companies in the world want to show how important the environment is to them. Oakleigh Manor strives to join these elite companies in the very near future.
