Firm’s international award
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A Belper business whose products were used to build Canary Wharf and stadiums for the London Olympics has won international recognition for reducing its impact on the environment.
Adshead Ratcliffe & Co Ltd, in Derby Road, was presented with the coveted ISO 14001 accreditation by the International Standards Organisation.
To achieve the standard the firm had to prove it was getting greener without sacrificing profits.
The award is the latest in a list of international successes for the firm, which employs 65 people and was formed 154 years ago.
In 2011 the company signed an agreement with a firm in Saudi Arabia, which would see its products made under licence for sale in the Middle East. It now has a strong presence in the Gulf States and is looking to expand into India and China.
The company’s sealant was also used to build the velodrome and aquadome for the 2012 Olympics.
Steve Brown, Adshead Ratcliffe’s Technical Director said: “Our business has always taken environmental issues seriously - especially due to our proximity to one of Derbyshire’s few natural wetland areas and also the River Derwent.
“However it wasn’t until two years ago that we considered the benefits of formalising our management activities and ensuring compliance with such an internationally recognised standard.
“The process has been a lengthy one but certainly worth the effort since it has yielded tangible reductions in waste, helped us improve our recycling, and enabled us tomitigate environmental risk in some of our activities.”
Before being awarded the ISO the company had to get through a series of independent audits and a comprehensive review of the company’s manufacturing activities at Belper.
Mr Brown continued: “ISO 14001 is a major achievement for our business, but this is only the start of the process.
“The standard gives us a platform from which we can continually assess our activities, not only from a profitability viewpoint but from an awareness of our impact on the environment.”
The award was presented by the business standards company BSI.
Frank Reynolds, Product Marketing Manager for Sustainability at BSI said: “The standard encourages an organisation to put its activities under a spotlight to ensure environmental impacts are minimised and provides a framework for delivering on-going cost savings and efficiencies.
“Adshead Ratcliffe & Co Ltd should be rightly proud of this achievement.”
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Wednesday 22 May 2013
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