ANI Management Systems

The Green Dragon Standard is a stepped standard recognising effective environmental management. The Standard offers an environmental management system relevant to the specific needs of your company and rewards actions taken to achieve environmental improvements.

For many companies, the attainment of a formal environmental management system such as ISO 14001 can be very daunting, and in some cases not relevant to their current business needs. Many organisations aspiring to ISO 14001 do not receive any recognition for the steps that they have made along the way and if they don't achieve all the elements for certification, then they have nothing to show for their efforts. This is where the Green Dragon Environmental Standard plays an important part.

There are five levels of the standard, with each step contributing towards achievement of the International and European environmental standards, ISO 14001 and EMAS. During the appraisal and audit processes for the Green Dragon Standard, there is an evaluation of costs as well as environmental performance - this means that at each stage the company will have an outline environmental management system that relates to its bottom line.

The Green Dragon Environmental Standard® is intended to provide organisations with:

• the elements of an effective environmental management system that is appropriate to the nature and scale of their activities and operations, and/or
• an implementation tool for achieving ISO14001:2004 and/or the EC Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) and/or BS8555:2003. (Where an organisation wishes to achieve any of these standards, it is strongly recommended that copies of these standards are obtained in addition to the Green Dragon Environmental Standard®.)

The Green Dragon Environmental Standard® incorporates the following key principles of Environmental Management:

• Continual Environmental Improvement
• Compliance with Environmental Legislation
• Pollution Prevention
• Communication of Environmental Issues

There are five Levels within the Green Dragon Environmental Standard®, each incorporating the key elements of:

• Planning
• Taking Action
• Checking Progress
• Reviewing Achievements

to realise continual environmental improvement.

This document sets out the minimum requirements for achieving each Level of the Green Dragon Environmental Standard®

Organisations achieving:

• Levels 1-5 shall receive a Certificate stating the Level achieved, date of expiry and serial number.
• Levels 2-5 will be entitled to use the Green Dragon Logo on their corporate literature, providing they have a valid certificate.
• Levels 3-5 are eligible to purchase the Green Dragon Environmental Standard® Plaque.

All inspected organisations shall feature in a Register on the Green Dragon Environmental Standard® website (www.greendragonems.com). Inspected organisations shall be subject to periodic audits by Green Dragon Environmental Standard® accredited assessment bodies.

Overview

For further information on the Green Dragon Environmental Standard® go to the Green Dragon website www.greendragonems.com.