Integrated ISO Systems in Horticulture, Landscaping & Agriculture

Turf Producers, Queensland grows natural turf at its Queensland farm

Urban Sustainable Landscapes is an Adelaide based business that designs and constructs award winning, drought tolerant, low maintenance landscapes.

Greenplay imports and installs high quality recyclable Limonta artificial turf.

 

Group of Dryland Farmers - A group of 5 Queensland farmers and their agricultural consultants completed the three training modules for ISO 14001. For Modules 2 and 3 the group were joined by the owner of a quite large Darwin based cleaning company doing ISO 9001.  Having a mix of industries and some people who do not know each other was helpful in expanding the participant’s view points.

 

The training consisted of three separate four-week modules with a couple of weeks off between each module plus an occasional week when one property had a 6metre deep flood.  Each module delivered both written material and downloadable audio files because some people learn better by reading, others by listening and most with a mixture.  Busy people on the move were able to download the audio onto an MP3 player and listen in their cars and tractors

Additionally there was a weekly teleconference to reinforce the major tasks for the week and get feedback, answer problems and questions and develop some form of assessment of how they are going.

The participants said that because they had previously done grains EMS and MLA, it was not new knowledge but they had not taken it on to ISO 14001.  They found this training was an orderly process that concentrated on why and prevented them from getting bogged down in paperwork.  It helped them to understand the importance of process and how integrate the EMS into their business rather than adding a layer on top of it.

They also commented that they want to go on and integrate quality ISO 9001 into their system once they have completed their certification because this is equally important to their business.  They were aware of the ease of integration because the cleaning company that joined the group for Modules 2 and 3 had done the quality module instead of the environment for Module 1 as he is implementing ISO 9001.  This worked because the process in Module 2 is to build a system to implement the plan developed in Module 1 and every business in any group will have a different plan.

The group included two agricultural consultants who work as part of the team with the farmers and they felt that the consultants and farmers all needed to be in the same place with their management concepts.

One of the two consultants in the group commented that the training style took time and commitment and challenged some of their previous thinking but that the results appeared better because the outcome was an understanding of ‘why is it so”.  They felt that the continuous improvement and feedback loop helps them to deliver a more professional service to their clients and to overcome inefficiencies in their businesses and deliver a better product for their clients.

The group said that the training helped them to think globally and to develop a good understanding of what a management system is.  They believe that a global outlook is very important especially in these times of climate change when primary producers need to be thinking globally.  They felt that it was a safe learning environment and all commented that they found the audio files a particularly helpful way of learning.

The Barooga Lamb EMS Group was funded by the Natural Heritage Trust (NHT) to develop an EMS program. They had previously done a lot of work on environmental issues on their farms and had a good understanding of their legal compliance requirements but they had not been involved in a systematic approach to EMS.

When Jean Cannon became involved, the group met with Jean for a one day workshop where learned how to scope their EMS fully using mind maps, then analyse all their risks and develop an environmental management plan. They worked with Tim Paramore of Agronomic Services, who is a member of their group, to further develop a wonderful series of 14 mind maps starting from their basic Farm Activities map. They completed their risk analysis using Jean’s online tools.



Approximately 2 months later, the group met with Jean again for a further 1day workshop where we worked through what they need to do for module 2 and also the safety module because they had identified their safety risks as a natural outcome of their mind mapping. Again they were left with online tools to enable them to work through the program at their own pace.

This group now have a very comprehensive understanding of their environmental and safety risks and how to manage them. They have a system in place to enable them to maintain their management plans and some have expressed interest in taking their
Clyde Agriculture is an agribusiness involved in the production of cotton, wool, beef, mutton and arable crops and the processing of cotton.

Seeds Bushland is a business run by Kylie and Travis Robertson and devoted to sustainable bushland regeneration and education.  They had some occupational health procedures in place and implemented an integrated ISO 9001 Quality and ISO 14001 Environmental Management System.  I will let Kylie describe how she found the experience.

Dear Jean,
Just writing to update you with where we are at and how we have come along so far. We have found the services you deliver very beneficial to our business. Whilst accreditation was the initial goal it has become secondary to the development of efficient management systems that assist everyone in our organisation and most importantly our clients. The key benefits to us undertaking your services we feel have been:
•    Identifying areas we could do better in (Communication) and developing systems that address those issues. We implemented a communication register that documents all the issues we need to know about and/or address and this is inputted by communication forms as well as our existing daily record sheets.
•    We were able to streamline our systems. So we had already existing OH&S policy, procedures and reporting system and with the addition of Quality and Environment we where able to develop a streamlined system that has not increased the workload but made it more accountable and efficient.
•    We have developed several registers that have assisted us immensely, what a tool the register is and our register of registers hyperlinked to all relevant documents take pride of place in our management system.
•    Our work Procedures Manual has been redeveloped to incorporate Quality, OH&S and Environment, existing reporting forms where adjusted to report on all three.

We are extremely happy with what we have achieved and although it has taken us (and will continue to) a long time we have been developing benefits to our business along the way. Importantly we have found that by having completed this work with Enviro Action's help we could positively answer and respond to tender questions in our last tender for local government that we have been successful. Everything that Jean had advised us to do was required in our tender and we could answer positively.  We also feel that our approach to this as a management team has rubbed off on our staff and whilst we are a relatively new business(3 years) we have seen a definite change in our crew where issues on everything OHS&E and Quality are raised in a positive manner with continuous improvement the goal for all and all are staff do contribute to this process.

I would advise anyone committed to providing a quality service or even just wishing for less headaches in managing there business to consider undertaking Jean’s services. Thank you Jean for your patience and continued support as we take longer in the process than normal.

Kind Regards, Kylie Robertson, Director