History of the Enviro-Mark®NZ certification programme
The Enviro-Mark certification programme was developed in the 1990’s in the UK by David Bower of Enviro-Mark Systems UK Ltd. It was a ground-breaking solution for environmentally-focused companies and organisations looking to reduce their environmental risks and improve their environmental performance.
David, the inventor and creator of the programme, was a key figure in the UK environmental management field at the time of the programme’s inception. David was part of a group of emerging environmental professionals developing industry-focused tools to get organisations engaged in the environmental agenda. David’s particular focus was that organisations with potentially complex or high-risk supply chains would require assistance in helping to manage them. They would also require assurance that these supply chain organisations adhered to the same ethics and level of environmental performance – whilst also ensuring health and safety legal compliance as a minimum. All in all a one-stop-shop approach to providing tools for companies trying to get on top of their environmental and health and safety responsibilities.
It was the first tool of its kind to provide a standardised and structured methodology for the development of an environmental management system (EMS). It also used an innovative and interactive web-based platform to deliver the programme; and this combination of easy access and simple approach became highly popular with businesses of all types throughout the UK and Ireland.
David’s foresight also meant that the programme would be ideally placed to become aligned with emerging international standards for environmental management – even at a time when standards such as ISO 14001:2004 didn’t exist.
Now to continue this legacy of future-thinking, Landcare Research have taken ownership of the Enviro-Mark programme and thank David for his support and vision to make this happen.