Importance of health, safety & environment to your business
Plan ahead to get health, safety and the environment right
The best approach to managing environmental and health and safety issues is to get the right procedures and practices in place from the start - and then monitor them regularly to ensure they're still appropriate. You are legally required to carry out a thorough health and safety risk assessment. See our guide on risk assessment - an overview.
Once you have conducted an assessment, you might want to:
- Assess all other possible environmental risks.
- Update your assessments whenever anything changes - for example, if you buy new equipment, employ new members of staff or change your working practices.
- Carry out routine mini-assessments - look for potential health and safety or environmental problems.
- Keep an eye open for potential sources of waste that you could reduce.
- Involve employees and encourage them to give you ideas for improvements - options include a safety committee or a suggestion scheme.
- Keep up to date with the latest technologies to give you new ideas for ways to improve your health and safety performance and reduce your business' environmental impact.
- Check that new equipment is suitable for the task it will be required to perform. Does it have suitable guards and other protective devices if these are necessary? Consider whether energy-efficient or water-efficient equipment would be suitable - any initial extra cost is likely to be outweighed by longer-term savings. You can find out about enhanced capital allowances available on certain types of equipment on the Enhanced Capital Allowances website.
- Carry out regular maintenance to keep equipment operating at full efficiency to reduce health, safety and pollution risks.
- Consider how new products could use fewer materials and consume less energy.
- Carry out regular checks to ensure staff are following safety procedures.
Subjects covered in this guide
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