Thermal spray company first to achieve ISO14001

A Plasma and Thermal Coatings product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Mar 16, 2000

Plasma and Thermal Coatings has become the first UK thermal spray company to achieve the Environmental Management Standard ISO 14001.

Plasma and Thermal Coatings Ltd, one of the leading UK surface technology companies, has become the first UK thermal spray company to achieve the Environmental Management Standard ISO 14001.

As a company committed to minimising the environmental impacts of its activities, the achievement of BS EN ISO 14001 certification is seen as a major component in its business objectives.

From a starting point of January this year, Plasma and Thermal Coatings completed an audit and introduced all necessary systems to achieve compliance within just nine months.

"We recognised that a healthy environment and the pursuit of business are inextricably linked", comments Richard Prince, managing director of Plasma and Thermal Coatings, "We therefore believe that we have a primary responsibility to protect the environment as an integral part of good business practice".

Whilst the scheme was introduced on a company-wide basis, Mark Craig the company's environmental manager with a team of eight people has been responsible for adopting the environmental standard.

After completing an internal audit, the team has to assess the environmental impact of raw materials, processes and outputs from the company including its products and waste materials.

It also extended to environmental awareness training of all company staff.

"We wanted to be one of the first UK companies to comply with this standard", adds Mark Craig, environmental manager, "as it's a significant opportunity for us to improve our efficiencies as well as engender better relations with the local community, suppliers and customers".

The company firmly believes that in a short space of time there will be supply chain pressure for all companies to comply with this internationally recognised environmental management system.

Plasma and Thermal Coatings are clearly ahead of the game in this respect, and adds to their ISO 9002 quality management standard which they have retained for several years now.