The company’s Environmental Stewardship initiative got a boost when a 3-member team from EMERA Caribbean gave an overview of the Barbados Light & Power Co. Ltd. (BLPC) Environmental Management System (EMS) to a small group of employees. Emera (Caribbean) is a subsidiary of Emera Inc. of Canada and owns BLPC and the Grand Bahama Company. The company also has 19.1% shareholder interest in LUCELEC and shares in DOMLEC.
An EMS is a tool that manages environmental risks through a plan-do-check-act cycle that engages EMPLOYEES with environmental accountabilities and promotes continual improvement. The focus here is the EMPLOYEES because our actions or non-actions (as in all our business) is critical to the success of the EMS. EMPLOYEES must be vigilant, plan and execute work well to avoid negative environmental issues. An EMS is most successful when management and operational staff work in unison to ensure EMS best practices are incorporated in all day-to-day activities.
Three top level Emera executives, namely the Health Safety and Environment Manager for Emera Caribbean Freddie Adamson Manager, the BLPC Environmental Health and Safety Coordinator Nicole Thomas and the Director of Safety from Emera Inc. John Hollohan presented and took questions on their experience in setting up and maintaining the EMS in Barbados. The discussion also touched on the health and safety practices in EMERA managed Business Units.
There are a myriad of reasons to implement an EMS. They include:
- Corporate Responsibility; that’s being a good steward
- Legal Implications; are we adhering to local environmental laws, regulations and practices
- Business Management; it makes good business sense especially as the results often redound to cost reductions
The benefits of an EMS include reduction of environmental impacts, improvement in environmental performance, conformance with legislative requirements, reduction in waste and operating cost.
The EMERA team was on island attending the CARILEC Occupational Safety and Health Conference at the Royalton St. Lucia Resort and Spa from May 21-23.
The session was attended by the Chief Engineer, Senior HRM, T&D Manager, Generation Engineer, Civil Engineer and Manager for Strategy Development and Implementation.
