Summary

Needs:

  • ◊ To address sustainability
  • ◊ To establish a formalised environmental management system
  • ◊ To demonstrate to students, staff and corporate clients their commitment to sustainability

Benefits:

  • ◊ Increased stakeholder confidence
  • ◊ Prove to potential students and corporate clients their commitment to sustainability
  • ◊ Reduced cost of waste management
  • ◊ Savings in consumption of energy and materials
  • ◊ Framework for continual improvement of environmental performance.

Background 

Founded in 1945, by business for business, Henley was the first business school in the UK and is one of the oldest and most respected schools in Europe.

An impressive full-service portfolio extends from postgraduate degree programmes to a world-renowned executive education offering, from cutting-edge research spanning a uniquely broad range of fields to specialist consultancy services.

One of the very few business schools worldwide to hold triple-accredited status from the major UK, European and US awarding bodies (AMBA, EQUIS, AACSB), Henley is also the world's third largest provider of MBA education and home to the world-ranked Henley MBA.

Home to some 7,000 programme members and students from over 140 countries, Henley also has an ever-growing alumni network – currently featuring more than 30,000 members.  The Business School’s highly pragmatic and relevant programmes are readily applied back in the working environment, to make a real difference to individuals and organisations.

Client Needs

With ever increasing pressure from stakeholders and authorities to address sustainability, independent certification to ISO14001 will undoubtedly enhance the competitive stance and environmental credibility of any organisation involved with corporate education.

Such is the case for Henley Business School which has recently shown its commitment to sustainable management by implementing ISO14001. “As one of the world’s leading business schools, we wanted to demonstrate to our students, staff and corporate customers that we have a robust environmental management system in place,” says Alan Brand, Director of Hotel and Estate Services

“Sustainable management is critical to our future business so it is imperative that our systems reflect best working practice and a commitment to sustainability”.

Solution

There are some key commercial benefits that organisations can achieve by certification to ISO14001. Implementing ISO14001 will help organisations to:

◊ Continually improve sustainable performance within available budgets

◊ Reduce carbon emissions and waste, improving the resource efficiency of the entire organisation

◊ Improve social impacts such as community involvement and fair employment

◊ Secure investment and long term viability

◊ Enhance relations with stakeholders and suppliers adding value to both parties

 

“The ISO14001 standard provides a structured and effective framework for us to do that,” continues Brand.  “The management system we have put in place is not just for our benefit, but has wider implications for society as a whole. ISO14001 gives us an opportunity to integrate a number of our initiatives into a formal structure allowing us to be economically viable in a truly sustainable way.”

The implementation of any management system can seem somewhat daunting, both in terms of resource and time required, however Henley Business School was able to build upon activities and processes already in place within the organisation. “Adoption of ISO14001 was easy in some ways as we do so much of the work already,” says Brand.

Catlow Consulting’s  Role

“We knew that to achieve certification to ISO14001 we would need a facilitator with knowledge of our business and a rapport with our people.  We had worked with Philip Catlow of Catlow Consulting on a number of projects since 2000 and knew he could deliver what we wanted. After all our hard work, we also needed independent assessment to prove the credibility of our achievements both internally and externally, so Philip’s association with BSI was ideal” states Brand. “As a leading Business School we need to lead the way and not just be seen as a follower. Our world class status means that our staff, students, corporate clients and all of our stakeholders expect us to be at the forefront of new initiatives and government schemes.  Facilitation from Catlow Consulting together with certification by BSI to ISO14001 helps confirm this.”