The challenge

Longcliffe chose international sustainability assurance provider, Lucideon, to carry out certification of their management systems; having effective quality, environmental and energy management systems ensures the continual improvement and streamlining of a company's day-to-day operations.

What we delivered

Lucideon first audited Longcliffe's quality management system in 1992. Under the scope of 'Extraction, Processing and Transportation of high purity Calcium Carbonate'. Lucideon auditors successfully made a recommendation for certification and subsequently to ISO 9001, the standard which is designed to facilitate and enable consistency of a company's products and/or services.

Since then, Lucideon auditors have certified Longcliffe's environmental management system to ISO 14001, have verified its environmental labels and declarations, with regards recycled content of its fine powders, to ISO 14021 and have certified the company to the BES 6001 standard for responsible sourcing of products.

In 2014, Lucideon assessed Longcliffe's energy management system to ISO 50001, and according to Longcliffe, became the first quarrying company in the UK to achieve this certification. This assessment included a review of recently implemented energy efficiency projects, such as the installation of two new intelligent compressors; motor replacement and LED lighting programmes. Longcliffe has also committed considerable resources into renewable energy with the construction of two huge wind turbines set for completion at the end of 2015. In addition, a solar panel farm project is currently at the planning stage.

Value to the client

André Elliott, QES Manager at Longcliffe said: "We have formed a long and valued partnership with Lucideon over the years and have used our ever extending array of audited management systems as a driver in our quest for continual improvement across all aspects of our business."

By implementing management systems and choosing to have them externally certified, Longcliffe is able to highlight its commitment to continual improvement and sustainable practice.

The company's efforts in improving sustainability have already been acknowledged, as Longcliffe has won 'smaller fleet operator of the year' in the 2015 Logistics Carbon Reduction Scheme (LCRS) awards, which recognises the efforts LCRS members are taking to reduce carbon emissions from freight activity.

Tim Watts, Operations Manager, Assurance at Lucideon said: "Having worked with Longcliffe for a number of years we know that they are fully committed to limiting their impact on the environment. This award bears testament to their continued work to reduce carbon emissions."