Green Glossary

Environmental management

The Green Mark award scheme is an ideal and straightforward approach to implement environmental management into your organisation’s processes and systems. If you are frequently being asked about your company’s environmental credentials or wish to become more environmentally responsible and improve your efficiency, then Green Mark will help you to do this.

Environmental policy

Through the Green Mark award scheme you will also receive guidance to develop an environmental policy that describes the activities of your organisation and identifies how significant the impacts of its operations are upon the environment. Your environmental policy will establish an overall sense of direction and set priorities of action for your organisation. You can also set goals that reflect the level of environmental responsibility and performance you desire, against which all subsequent actions can be assessed.

Environmental good practice

Green Mark provides an ideal opportunity to evolve your organisation’s existing systems to place environmental and sustainability considerations at the forefront of your activities. This will create a change in company culture that can result in more efficient operations and processes, bringing many benefits to your organisation.

Sustainability

Green Mark will also introduce you to the concept of sustainability and provide an opportunity for your organisation to become more "sustainable".

Sustainability is about creating new ways to live and prosper while ensuring an equitable, healthy future for all people and the planet. This means meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Business sustainability is about promoting environmental, social and economic well being simultaneously. Whilst businesses play an important part in contributing to the economic wealth of a community, they also have a role to play in the responsible use of natural resources and in considering the social responsibility.

Objectives and targets

Objectives and targets are used during the Green Mark award process that will be based on your environmental priorities. The targets will be effective and demonstrate commitment to improvement.

Action planning

Developing an action plan offers you the chance to assess current performance against expectations and will designate responsibilities to, and refocus the efforts of, managers, employees and other stakeholders with regard to the objectives and targets that you have set for your organisation.

Cost savings

There is an opportunity to achieve significant cost savings by progressing with Green Mark and making environmental improvements. Financial benefits will be a result of becoming more efficient as an organisation in areas such as energy use, waste production and raw material use. The explanation is simple; use or produce less and you will pay for less.

One of the key themes of Green Mark is to install good practice into organisations whilst making continual improvements towards achieving best practice, creating more efficient and environmentally responsible organisations.

Legal compliance

Green Mark provides you with a mechanism and opportunity to identify current and future environmental legislation affecting your company and its operations, which enables you to take actions to ensure compliance and avoid potential fines and prosecution.

Environmental marketing

Progressing through the Green Mark award scheme provides you with a ideal opportunity to begin marketing your organisation as environmentally responsible and that you are taking steps to reduce your environmental impacts. This is becoming increasingly important as more customers and stakeholders are requesting evidence of environmental good practice before selecting suppliers or services.

Due to the 3 stage structure of Green Mark, you can gain recognition after completing each level of the award, and the Green Mark logo, awarded once you have successfully achieved each level, is instantly recognisable as illustrating environmental good practice.