Natural ingredients are essential to Nairn’s. And keeping every process as natural as possible is equally important. By working with us, they were able to push their green standards even higher. Together we cut electricity consumption by 5% and reduced waste to landfill by 15%. All this work has meant they now meet internationally recognized standard ISO 14001. But more importantly for them, they’re greener than ever.

KEEPING NAIRN’S GREEN

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NEVER STOP IMPROVING

Minimising its environmental impact is part of Nairn’s corporate objective, so it was in many ways a natural progression for them to move towards ISO 14001 the international standard for Environmental Management. Nairn’s Oatcakes: Achieved ISO 14001 certification in June 2011

Nairn’s Oatcakes has been producing traditional Scottish oatcakes in its Edinburgh factory since 1880. The product range now includes sweet biscuits, oat-based snacks and muesli as well as organic and gluten-free choices.

The independently-owned company has a particularly close relationship with its environment, using oats produced by local Scottish farmers for the majority of its product range. Minimising its environmental impact is part of the corporate objective, so it was in many ways a natural progression for the company to move towards ISO 14001 the international standard for Environmental Management.

Involving the team

“We already had a number of environmental initiatives in place” said Lead Auditor Bill Bolan, “but the decision to go for certification allowed us to involve all our staff in the design of a system to make sure we were committed to continual improvement.”

Bill regards staff involvement as critical. The project was handled by Environmental Manager Alan Drummond whose first action was to form a Green Team including representatives of all departments. A number of brain storming sessions allowed for everyone to suggest areas for improvement to be included in the plan.

Setting objectives

Two key objectives were set at the start of the process: reduce energy consumption by 5% and reduce waste to landfill by 15%.

The Green Team ensured that all views, ideas and opinions were captured from across the business, then, working to the guidelines set out in Nairn’s Environmental Policy, they systematically implemented a series of reviews, reforms and changes to the business in order to ensure that both objectives were met within months of certification.

“Initiating an environmental management plan means that we are measuring energy consumption properly and are therefore able to make informed decisions about where we can make savings” Bill continues. The result of this measurement was to show that maximising the efficiency of the factory lighting - introducing better controls and replacing all the factory lighting with T5 lamps - was enough to reach the target.

The project to reduce waste to landfill was handled by Russell Clink, Services Manager, but required the active involvement of all staff. “You have to get the staff to buy into the process or it will fail. For some of our team the main involvement they have with the process is to make sure that waste is put in the right coloured bin – but why would they bother unless they understand the objective?”

As a result of a clear focus on waste, the company has exceeded its waste to landfill target already and is committed to driving the figure down further.

“The most important result of having the standard in place is that it means we can measure what we are doing so that we can work on ways to improve further. For example, we now take half hourly metre readings to map our energy consumption – understanding the peaks and troughs allows us to do more to control it.”

The certification process

Preparing the company for certification involved considerable planning. As part of the process two staff members have qualified as auditors so that they are able to design and manage the systems to meet the standard.

Also key to the process is the involvement of the certification body, NQA. The certification process involved a pre-assessment site visit by the NQA auditor which Bill Bolan described as “invaluable.”

“We weren’t that far off, but NQA were really helpful in identifying specific areas that we needed to tighten up on and suggesting ways we could do this. Their understanding of the standard was invaluable, but their suggestions also led to us implementing changes that have proved very beneficial to the business.”

The company successfully passed its certification assessment in June 2011. “It’s a huge achievement. Having asked all of our staff to help us in the process, it was a really good feeling to reach our goal.”

Going further

Like many companies, however, Nairn’s is finding that the original certification is only the start of a progressive process. With the confidence and commitment that comes from achieving the standard, the company has gone on to consider further improvements.

“The regular audit visits are essential to make sure we keep our focus. The specialist knowledge and independent eye of the NQA auditor is always helpful and we expect each repeat visit will give us further insight into making the standard work even harder for us.”

“2011 saw us switch to the use of sustainable palm oil for all of our product range and we are now proud to be part of the RSPO – the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil. We have also decided to work to Carbon Trust standards to increase our energy efficiency even more each year.”

“As a company we have always taken our environmental impact seriously, but the process involved in achieving ISO 14001 certification has given us a structure, a rigour and a clear progression plan for ongoing improvement.”

“Achieving ISO 14001 certification has given us a structure, a rigour and a clear progression plan for ongoing improvement.”

“The specialist knowledge and independent eye of the NQA auditor is always helpful and we expect each repeat visit will give us further insight”

CS/NAIRNS/02/JUL13