Cream of Manchester
Manchester Dairy is celebrating following a successful four-day audit, which saw them gain an internationally recognised standard, for their environmental management system.
The preliminary audit for the ISO 14001 standard took place last November and following this a number of areas for improvement were identified.
“There was an awful lot of work to do following the initial audit, which we had to complete within six months in order to comply with the standard,” explained Keith Aust,NRC Manager and environmental co-ordinator. “The whole of the dairy pulled together and the final audit at the beginning of the month was a success.”
Ashby Dairy is the only other site in the business to achieve this standard and Richard Laxton, environmental services manager, from Ashby shared his experience with Manchester by assisting Keith in the delivery of training and development programmes on the environmental management system.
“The standard measures your systems against pollution prevention, which includes noise, air, land and water. We ran training courses to help raise employees' awareness and develop their skills in environmental issues,” explained Keith.
“When the auditors visited the dairy they not only looked at our systems, but also spoke to employees at all levels about the operations they are involved in," Keith added.
"Gaining this standard really reflects the effort and commitment from the whole site and they should be congratulated," said George Plemper, grouop technical services manager.
With building contractors redeveloping the site when the audit took place, Keith admitted that ‘there was a lot more to think about than usual’ but thanked the contractors for their cooperation and help in achieving the standard as their practices were also audited.
The standard gives Manchester Dairy a head start in meeting the EU’s Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) regulations. The deadline for this is March 2005 and all Arla sites are currently working towards achieving this.
Arla Foods UK plc is home to some of the UK’s leading dairy brands including Cravendale, Lurpak and Anchor. Processing approximately two billion litres of milk a year Arla continues to be one of the UK’s leading dairy companies and a supplier of fresh liquid milk and cream to the top seven retailers.
Over 2,500 daily deliveries are made directly to stores nationwide and Arla brands can be found across the dairy category. As well as the leader of the butter, spreads and margarine sector, and a major supplier of other added value products including flavoured milk and cheese, Arla continues to build working relationships with Arla Foods Milk Partnership, a unique group of dairy farmers, which supplies around 90 per cent of Arla's total milk requirements.
Behind this leading business is a team of circa 2,800 people across the UK located at our dairies, distribution centres and head office.