News in Brief from Industrial Environmental Management

EURO AWARD NOMINATIONS: Twelve UK companies have been nominated for the prestigious European Awards for the Environment. They are: BIP, for VOC reductions; CRE Group, for training services to China; Entec UK, for sustainable environmental management in Egypt; Exotherm, for insulated heating technology; Gardner Energy Management, for non-mechanical steam trapping technology; Groundwork South Tyneside, for environmental construction; Hyder Consulting, for a joint UK-Vietnamese water plant construction project; Morrison Construction Group, for “Responsible Construction”; Pilkington, for NOx reductions; ScottishPower, for sustainability; Serck Heat Transfer Holdings, for exhaust gas coolers; and Strattons Hotel, for “reduce, re-use, recycle, rethink, rationalise, re-work and recover”.

PILOT SCHEME TO IMPROVE SME PERFORMANCE: BSI is working in partnership with environmental consultancy 14000 & ONE Solutions on a two-year pilot scheme, entitled Project Acorn, to help small to medium sized businesses (SMEs) improve their environmental performance by supporting their adoption of the international environmental management standard ISO 14001.

FIRST REGIONAL GHG INVENTORY: Northwest England has become the first English region to release an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions. The inventory, prepared by Manchester Metropolitan University’s Atmospheric Research and Information Centre (ARIC) and UMIST, is being published by the Northwest Climate Group, a partnership of Northwest NGOs, businesses and government bodies. The inventory shows that the average Northwesterner is responsible for 12.7 tonnes of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gases each year – equal to driving from Lands End to John O’Groats and back 30 times.

WASTE MINIMISATION BOARD GAME:A waste minimisation training board game, ‘Eliminate’, has been launched to help train employees. The result of a partnership between the Environment Agency, Groundwork and the WWF-UK, Eliminate is based on actual waste minimisation initiatives that have resulted in savings of millions of pounds. Players take on the role of a small manufacturing company in financial difficulty – ‘Whittaker’s Widget Factory’. The ‘Quids-In Bank’ has warned the factory that unless it saves £200,000 the receivers will be called in. £20. 01753 643104.