Over the years I’ve seen many environmental policies. Some are good and some, well, not so good. It’s a common task for environmental practitioners to write a policy from scratch, or at least maintain an existing policy. Therefore, I thought it would be helpful to identify good practice when it comes to policy development. An environmental policy statement is a key document that outlines the aims of an organisation with regards to environmental management. It is an expression of the organisation’s top management commitment to high standards of environmental performance. It is advisable in environmental management to use either, good practice guidance or law as criteria for development of controls.…
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NEBOSH Additional Support for Exams Explained
Wondering whether additional support or special considerations are available for NEBOSH Exams? NEBOSH and RRC have a duty to ensure all candidates can take their assessments in a way most appropriate to their personal needs. We do that by making access or Reasonable Adjustments (RA) before an exam. Or alternatively, we ask NEBOSH to grant Special Consideration (SC) to assessment results. For more information, here is the NEBOSH Policy on access arrangements: https://www.nebosh.org.uk/policies-and-procedures/policy-and-procedures-for-access-arrangements-reasonable/ Reasonable Adjustments (RA) If candidates are aware of factors that will affect their performance during exams, RRC can apply for Reasonable Adjustments on their behalf. Any adjustments are agreed before the assessment takes place. Candidates must inform RRC at…
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NEBOSH Health & Safety Leadership Excellence – What Drives People?
I found myself in front of a group of senior execs a few weeks ago talking about the influence that they have on the safety culture of their organisations, and consequently the safety-related behaviours of their workers. The course was the new NEBOSH / HSE Health and Safety Leadership Excellence course. This is an ideas-rich one day introduction to the principles of health and safety leadership. It has a heavy emphasis on human factors and is more concerned with leadership styles and the psychology of decision-making than it is with the nuts and bolts of safety management. I blogged about certain aspects of the course a few months ago (see…
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Five Ways That We Can Recycle More Effectively
Most of us are guilty of not recycling enough, and unfortunately this is a global issue. An issue that is progressively getting worse, and the damage caused is becoming almost irreparable. Society has become accustomed to living a consumer driven lifestyle. Meaning that we buy products with the view of throwing them away once they are no longer of functional use. Although the UK recycling rate is (currently) gradually increasing, since a majority of our environmental laws derive from EU law; there is much scepticism as to whether the UK Government will prioritise recycling once we exit the EU. The UK recycling rate for Waste from Households (WfH; including IBA…
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Mental Health Awareness Within H&S and The Workplace
Health and Safety Workplace Cultures Naturally Mental Health issues can occur throughout all workplaces and industries. Poor mental health can affect any one of us. However, within the Health and Safety industries, there are some environments where raising concern about these issues is difficult. For example, within the Construction Industry there is a workplace culture which draws on ‘’traditional masculinity’’. This culture can be seen across the Health and Safety industries. For instance, Referenced from The SHP Road to Well-Being eBook: ”Referencing Robin Ely of Harvard Business School: Macho Culture is also endangering the workplace by creating a culture where people felt they “had to prove themselves” rather than assess…
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Futurebuild 2019 at The ExCel Centre
What is Futurebuild? The leading built environment event for professionals to meet and learn, be inspired and do business. The exhibition is held at the ExCel London spanning over three days, 5th – 7th March. There is an array of businesses exhibiting within the event, ranging from Siemens to Greenpeace. The focus is on producing sustainable materials, in order to improve our built environment and beyond. The event is interactive, in addition to plenty of stalls to view and explore, there are scheduled discussions you can attend. The discussions focus on various environmental, educational and housing issues. For example, we attended a talk named, The Environment Challenge: How can…
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Historical Parallels – The Great London Smog of 1952
As anyone who has attended a majority of the classroom-based courses that I have delivered will know; I believe a case study from the past can assist in helping students understand the problems of today. This can be a great learning experience. In regards to air pollution, I’m not aware of a better case study than that of The Great London Smog of 1952. The Great London Smog of 1952 The Great London Smog occurred in December 1952 and resulted in the deaths of around 12,000 people, and thousands of people became ill. The smog occurred for a period of 14 days in total. In the UK this case study…
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Group 1: Carcinogenic to Humans
I was diagnosed with cancer a little over five years ago. I know – that’s a bit of an opening line to a blog. But it’s true and I am unrepentant. We are afraid of the word despite the fact that one in two people born in the UK will experience some form of cancer over their lifetime (see here). Fortunately for me the type of cancer that I had, combined with early detection, surgery and chemotherapy have led to a very positive prognosis. I was, and am, lucky. But it has changed my perspective on cancer. When I was a young man cancer was a disease that other people…
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Q & A – John Binns on New Online NEBOSH Environmental Certificate Course
Our resident Environmental specialist and trainer John Binns, is on hand to answer questions about our new online NEBOSH Environmental Certificate course. Question & Answers with John Binns How do you find the experience of presenting content for online courses & have you done this before? I think this is the third time I have presented the content for an RRC environmental management course. So, I am becoming a bit of an old hand! When I started my career in environmental management I certainly didn’t expect to ever be filmed at any time doing my job. The first time I completed the filming I was a little nervous, but I…
