Nelson Brothers Specialty Chemicals Achieves ISO 14001:2015 Certification
Published by Nelson Brothers on
Jul 20, 2022 2:52:18 PM
The Nelson Brothers Specialty Chemicals group places environmental stewardship at the highest level. As such, leadership is constantly looking for ways to minimize our ecological footprint and contribute positively to the places and communities where we operate. As a testament to our commitment to this goal, we are pleased to announce the Environmental Management System (EMS) in operation at our Parrish manufacturing facility has achieved ISO 14001:2015 certification.
This certification marks the most recent recognition of Nelson Brothers' ongoing efforts to establish internal systems for assessing the quality of our manufacturing and managing continuous improvement. This recent ISO milestone builds on the existing ISO 9001:2015 certification we received in late 2020.
While ISO 9001 provided an established plan to monitor and audit the efficiency of our chemical manufacturing continually, the ISO 14001 certification is essential because it establishes that Nelson Brothers Specialty Chemicals has a detailed and effective environmental management system and a system to follow it. "Successful companies recognize the need to continue to improve their environmental stewardship, and ISO 14001 offers Nelson Brothers a systematic approach to do that," says Tim Zeli, Vice President of Nelson Brothers Specialty Chemicals.
The Nelson Brothers EMS aims to achieve the areas of improvement that our regular and ongoing audits, as part of ISO 9001, have revealed. "We intend to improve energy efficiency, reduce material waste, and ensure control over the risks associated with manufacturing our emulsifier products for explosives and industrial chemical applications," says Zeli.
Our EMS plan and approach are detailed below:
Improve Energy Efficiency
Continuous chemical operations require extensive amounts of electricity and natural gas. The Nelson Brother's team recognizes this, with capital investments directed towards energy reduction. The site has done extensive work with energy-efficient lighting changeovers and electrical infrastructure upgrades to increase operating efficiency and drive down energy consumption throughout the manufacturing site.
Reduce Material Waste
The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have been drastic and wide-sweeping on the global supply chain. Raw materials are scarce in availability, and prices for them have significantly risen in most cases. Demand for products remains incredibly high, while supply for making goods is in an extreme crunch. At this time, many manufacturers are paying as much as it takes to procure necessary raw materials, keeping the cycle going and consuming all available stockpiles of natural resources. From an environmental perspective, Nelson Brothers is committed to finding innovative ways we can use fewer materials to produce our chemical products. Some of the solutions are bound up in automatic controls and new technology, which will help reduce waste, while our R&D department is actively researching new ways to manufacture legacy products. This provides more sustainable solutions with better performance to the public (our SMO replacement co-emulsifier for explosives is a prime example of our groundbreaking work in this category). Overall, we want to consume less water to make our products and in day-to-day activities and are actively monitoring this, as we are acutely aware of the droughts facing much of the world today.
Capital investments are continuously directed toward Air Emissions Control Equipment to ensure all production processes operate under environmental control. Additionally, the Nelson Brother's team is driven to use fewer raw materials, specifically maleic anhydride and Nitrogen. Furthermore, the site has implemented operational guidance and process controls to minimize Nitrogen usage by eliminating redundant manufacturing activities and utilizing plant air in place of Nitrogen where applicable.
Control Manufacturing Risks
As part of our EMS plan and approach to meeting our goals above, Nelson Brothers believes strongly in controlling and mitigating all risks associated with manufacturing our emulsifier and industrial products. The root cause of manufacturing problems can be many things at the plant level, from the integrity of equipment to pressure changes, weather, and operator error. We minimize risks through routine safety checks of our equipment and facilities and contingency training so that our team can respond to the issue and resolve it promptly if something goes awry. Each team member is trained on standard operating procedures for cleaning and managing equipment and the different elements of our EMS. Employees at all levels have autonomy in the organization and are responsible for bringing concerns to management's attention. Individuals can apply their knowledge to make decisions that progress our goals.
Furthermore, Nelson Brothers believe in doing business with like-minded suppliers who have also carefully considered their goals as they pertain to the environment. We will hold an annual management review and regular review meetings to ensure we attain the identified target amount for waste and water reduction according to our EMS plan. Risk is assessed daily at the start and close of each shift.
Nelson Brothers is well positioned to grow its product portfolio and increase the brand's reputation by being devoted to preserving natural resources and educating the organization on how we can directly impact the environment through our daily work. "The ISO 14001 certification marks the beginning of a new season of excellence in chemical manufacturing for Nelson Brothers with a concern for something much bigger than our business success alone. We will succeed at being good stewards in the long term due to our EMS plan." Says Tim Zeli.