The Dawn Meats facility in Ballyhaunis, Co. Mayo has recently achieved ISO 14001 certification. The certification awarded by Certification Europe shows that the Ballyhaunis site meets international best practice in relation to environmental management.
ISO 14001 is the most regarded environmental management system standard by the business community and is recognised worldwide. To comply with the standard an organisation must have formal processes and policies in place to ensure the company’s impact on the environment is minimal. The operation in Ballyhaunis went to great measures to implement this best in class environmental management system which involved the team onsite identifying every element of the business that could have a negative effect on the environment and applying control measures to minimise that impact.
The company focused on three key areas;
• Water Savings were achieved with the installation of new steriliser equipment, using water reuse technologies and changing work practices in the Abattoir Cleaning Process. These initiatives have reduced water use by over 10,000 m3 per annum.
• Energy Savings were achieved with the roll out with a heat recovery system which recovered heat from the refrigeration plant that used to be wastefully emitted to the atmosphere. This new heat recovery system resulted in a reduction in energy required to heat the water for abattoir cleaning. It has been calculated the 70,000 litres of oil have been saved annually with these new energy awareness measures, thus reducing Dawn Meats carbon footprint dramatically.
• Packaging improvements were highly important, as packaging plays a big role in Dawn’s business it was imperative that environmental impact of this was addressed through the implementation of an ISO 14001 Environmental Management system. Packaging was redesign to reduce cardboard usage, the new eco design of packaging process not only included Dawn staff but customers also got involved with some innovative ideas. As a result of the eco design less packaging is being used and more packaging is being recycled.
To achieve ISO 14001 the facility in Mayo underwent a number of onsite audits by the Ireland’s International ISO Certification Body, Certification Europe. The audits involved the examination of work practices onsite, environmental training records of staff, evidence of top level management commitment to the Environmental Policy and confirmation that the facility was complying with Irish and EU Environmental legislation and protocol.
At the awarding of ISO 14001 certificate Ciarán O’Malley Business Development Manager of Certification Europe stated that, “Dawn’s achievement of ISO 14001 certification shows the company is really aware of its responsibility to minimise its impact on the environment, and they should be held up within the food industry as a leading figure for environmental best practice.”
Also speaking at the ceremony Charlie Coakley, Group Environmental Manager for Dawn Meats stated “We have been operating an environmental management system since the late 90’s, as an organisation Dawn Meats has always recognised the importance of the environment, but the ISO 14001 certification from Certification Europe proves that we are meeting international environmental best practice.”
More About Dawn Meats:
Dawn Meats Ballyhaunis is part of a large, multi-national food group and is dedicated to the slaughter and boning of cattle and sheep. The plant is based in a rural town location and dates back to 1982 and is in current ownership since 1999.
Approx. 290 personnel are employed with separate personnel for slaughter and boning operations. The plant is 21,000 sq. metres in size. Customers include a wide range of UK and continental retail multiples with 3rd party hauliers used for finished product distribution.
An average of 2,000 cattle and 7,500 sheep are slaughtered weekly. Most cattle are procured from farm assured sources in accordance with the national scheme. Both fresh and frozen product is supplied from the site with freezing operations undertaken in-house.
More About Certification Europe:
Certification Europe provides ISO management system certification and inspection services to organisations across the globe that allows them to perform better and be able to prove it. Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, Certification Europe has operations in United Kingdom, Italy, Turkey and Japan. As an external certification body, Certification Europe is renowned for its pragmatic approach and value added approach to the audit process amongst its current clients. The company currently assesses approx 3000+ organisations internationally on an annual basis. Clients range from micro enterprise to multinationals and include Government Departments, State Bodies and private organisations.