Queen Mary University of London secures two prestigious sustainability credentials

Sustainability. Credit: elenabs/iStock.com

Queen Mary University of London has been awarded the ISO 14001:2105 Standard, which validates an organisation’s sustainable management of their operations.

The British Standards Institute (BSI) ISO 14001 certification drives organisations to evaluate how they manage emergency response, customer expectations, stakeholders and its relationships with their local community. The Standard is designed to respond to the latest trends and ensure it is compatible with other management system standards.

Aligned to this, Queen Mary also secured the Eco-Campus Platinum Award, which is granted in recognition of the University’s environmental management systems and processes. Through an external audit, the Platinum status recognises that Queen Mary conforms to the requirements Eco-Campus scheme at the highest level and also ISO14001:2015.

Dr Philippa Lloyd, Vice-Principal, Policy and Strategic Partnerships at Queen Mary says: “These are significant achievements, demonstrating a clear commitment to managing and improving our environmental performance. The ISO Standard is robust and better aligned with sustainable business strategies. We are proud to have successfully gone through the audit process to achieve both certification and an award. They help us provide value for the environment, the University, and other interested parties.”

For Queen Mary’s ISO certification, the Standard covers three key areas: enhanced environmental performance; the fulfilment of compliance obligations; and the achievement of environmental objectives.

Queen Mary has also aligned ISO 14001 with its commitment to 12 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including Goal 4 Quality Education and Goal 12 Responsible Consumption and Production.

Dr Lloyd concludes: “As we mark Sustainability Week at Queen Mary, this Standard and the Platinum Award validate the strategic prominence we place on environmental planning, management and leadership to continue to improve our environmental performance. These are commitments that demonstrates to our staff, students and wider external community our ongoing responsibility to protect the environment from harm and degradation.”