Time to take the test

If, as the old adage goes, necessity is the mother of invention, then it may

also be said that legislation is the mother of necessity. Goodwill and a sense

of social obligation can count for something, but it is legislation, and the

turn in public opinion that leads to it, which can push issues from the sidelines

to the centre of the business game.

Historically, this has been placed on the shoulders of governments. Now it

is industry itself that is seen as the key player. Governments, though initially

slow to react to this potential vote-earner, are now trying to at least seem

as if they are doing something about it, with the result that more and more

environmental legislation is being targeted at all areas of industry.

Testing tools

But wait. With all this legislation issuing forth from Westminster and Brussels,

industry needs to perform a greater number, and a wider range, of tests, making

the business of testing, and particularly out of house testing, a real growth

market.

Most commercial laboratories can, in fact, test just about anything if they

calibrate their equipment to do so. Some tests might need specific tools, but

generally speaking, the reason labs specialise in certain areas is the cost

of re-calibration. Given this, the sheer number of labs that deal with testing

that can be placed under the broadening ‘environment’ umbrella should say something

about the growth in demand.

Indeed, the very term ‘environmental testing’ has shown signs of growth over

the past few years, with branches of specialisations such as microbiological

analysis and chemicals testing being re-grouped under this collective term.

This may also explain why even large companies, who perform a certain amount

of in-house testing, still find a use of independent labs; when new or proposed

legislation leads to a requirement for which the in-house lab is not best suited,

it is often easier and more cost-efficient to out-source.

Nowhere has this become more apparent than in the on-line marketplace for laboratories

that take in such testing. Traditionally, industrial manufacturers needing out-of-house

testing have stuck to the companies they have encountered before, or who are

geographically close at hand, so that an accurate overview of the market for

environmental laboratory services was hard to discern. Now, however, the market

is becoming larger and therefore more competitive, with environmental laboratory

services being sought in a more targeted manner.

Indeed, figures from LabDirect, the only company that specialises in connecting

UK industry to the lab services they need, suggest that up to 50 per cent of

the lab services market is currently taken up with environmental testing of

one sort or another. The water and sewage industries alone were worth £8

billion in the UK last year.

Significantly, the market has now reached the stage where companies within

industry that have in-house testing facilities of their own are responding to

the out-sourcing demand. LabDirect has helped company labs that may be going

through an idle few months to take on work from other companies and so provide

an unexpected revenue stream.

Green is good PR

This shift from the ‘someone, someone else was at University with’ mindset to

a more sophisticated, open market looks set to continue over the coming years,

as factors such as the limping Kyoto treaty finally begin to filter down to

legislative level. Furthermore, many companies are beginning to regard a demonstrable

‘green’ approach as good PR in its own right, with a number of major US motor

manufacturers having already set themselves targets for emissions standards

that outstrip their legal obligations.

Whatever the reasons for an individual company seeking environmental lab services,

it is now clear that the they will be an increasingly important and integral

part of industry for the foreseeable future, and the procurement of such services

now ranks alongside the traditional logistical and supply issues of business

decision making.