In early May, a group of Flatiron Construction\u2019s\u00a0operations,\u00a0environmental\u00a0and\u00a0safety\u00a0professionals met for two days to\u00a0discuss what the new\u00a0ISO 14001, the international certification\u00a0for environmental management, really means for Flatiron.<\/p>\n
First, being ISO 14001 certified lowers Flatiron\u2019s risk because it improves our environmental compliance on projects. When
\nowners know that we have a system in place, they have a high\u00a0degree of confidence that Flatiron is doing the \u201cright thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt also saves our clients hard dollars because they don\u2019t have\u00a0to spend the time and resources on inspectors to check and\u00a0recheck our work,\u201d says environmental manager Dan Lowery. \u00a0\u201cThis certification means we already have a third-party verification\u00a0system in place, a sort of environmental quality control.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maintaining this certification also means that Flatiron will\u00a0continuously improve our environmental program, ensuring we\u00a0are the best of the best when it comes to the environment. \u00a0The\u00a0standards required by this certification provide a systematic way\u00a0to measure environmental performance through leading indicators\u00a0and force us to be objective and consistent. \u00a0By continuously\u00a0improving, Flatiron also significantly lowers the probability of\u00a0violations, litigation and disputes, resulting in higher profits.<\/p>\n
Lastly, and maybe the most obvious, we are doing this to\u00a0make sure we aren\u2019t harming the environment. \u201cLet\u2019s not\u00a0lose sight of the fact that environmental stewardship is one\u00a0of our core areas of social responsibility,\u201d notes Dan.<\/p>\n
Implementing a Company-Wide Environmental Program<\/strong><\/p>\n The committee\u2019s main objective was to determine how to best\u00a0implement the environmental management system on which\u00a0the certification is based. Arguably one of the most important\u00a0aspects of this system is how we are actually executing it at our\u00a0projects. As part of the certification process, Flatiron implemented\u00a0environmental management plans on two projects\u2014the BART\u00a0Oakland Airport Connector<\/a> and the Calaveras Dam<\/a>. The\u00a0environmental plans on these projects passed an independent\u00a0audit and helped Flatiron become ISO 14001 certified.<\/p>\n \u201cOur environmental systems are compliant. That\u2019s what\u00a0the certification tells us,\u201d says Dan. \u201cBut do we know\u00a0how these systems are being implemented across the\u00a0company? We don\u2019t, and that\u2019s what the next steps are\u00a0for us as a company, to identify any gaps between what\u00a0we say we do and what we are actually doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Who Will be Responsible for Implementing the Plans?<\/strong><\/p>\n Another major step in the certification process is to identify\u00a0and communicate responsibilities in the areas of environmental\u00a0management. \u00a0Flatiron does not expect to have environmental\u00a0managers on every project, so who will be executing these plans?<\/p>\n \u201cJust like every job does not require a dedicated quality\u00a0manager, we don\u2019t necessarily have to have dedicated\u00a0environmental managers on each project. We will, however,\u00a0provide resources and training for people who are interested\u00a0in stepping up and taking on new responsibilities in\u00a0environmental management. This could be a great career\u00a0opportunity for people who are interested,\u201d says vice president\u00a0of Environmental, Health and Safety Rodney Oliver.<\/p>\n While the environmental management system may\u00a0seem new to many employees at Flatiron, we are\u00a0already meeting some of its requirements. \u00a0\u201cThe beauty of the EMS is that owners\u2019 plans already\u00a0require what our system requires. We have to do a little\u00a0bit of coordinating to make sure we are doing it and\u00a0then checking that what we say is happening is actually\u00a0happening,\u201d says environmental manager Jason Phillips,\u00a0who helped lead the implementation of an environmental\u00a0plan on the Calaveras Dam project in Northern California.<\/p>\n \u201cThe important thing to remember is that we are already required\u00a0to do these things per our contracts. It would be rare that we\u00a0have an owner that doesn\u2019t require an environmental plan.\u201d<\/p>\n With environmental plans already completed and in\u00a0process at the BART Oakland Airport Connector and\u00a0Calaveras Dam projects, Flatiron will now make sure\u00a0we are following the EMS on every project.<\/p>\n One of the main goals of the EMS is to ensure compliance with\u00a0all environmental regulations and just as important, to make\u00a0sure we are continuously improving these systems by planning,\u00a0doing, checking and acting. Implementing\u00a0and ensuring compliance with environmental standards, and\u00a0eventually shifting the focus to leading indicators,\u00a0doesn’t\u00a0happen\u00a0quickly. It has taken approximately 10 years for the industry to\u00a0adopt safety as part of its culture. However, more emphasis on the\u00a0environment is coming, and Flatiron will continue to lead the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In early May, a group of Flatiron Construction\u2019s\u00a0operations,\u00a0environmental\u00a0and\u00a0safety\u00a0professionals met for two days to\u00a0discuss what the new\u00a0ISO 14001, the international certification\u00a0for environmental management, really means for Flatiron. First,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[66,97,166,167,181,183,188,244,365],"class_list":["post-295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-safety-and-environment","tag-bart-oakland-airport-connector","tag-calaveras-dam-replacement","tag-environmental-management-system","tag-environmental-managers","tag-flatiron-construction","tag-flatiron-corporation","tag-flatirons-social-responsibility","tag-iso-14001","tag-saftey"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}