Accredited Environmental Monitoring: That MCERTain feeling

Phil Black - PII Editor 13/04/2012

101 4 minutes read

Listen to this article

Prior to the current economic downturn it appeared that environmental impact monitoring had been pushed sufficiently far up the corporate agenda to become a vital day-to-day issue for most process controllers. When the economic crisis hit, it understandably raised fears that long term environmental and sustainability programmes would be abandoned in favour of short-term cost savings. However, environmental management has remained a priority for the vast majority of manufacturers. In addition to the growth in the number of environmental schemes available, the already established schemes have expanded to cover a wider remit, particularly those relating to emissions monitoring.

As part of the conditions of holding a permit from the Environment Agency, process operators must continually monitor process emissions to check that they stay within the legally permitted limits. Many process operators choose to use the services of a third party organisation to carry out this monitoring. However, they may not be aware that in certain circumstances the use of an organisation with the relevant accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025 for the Monitoring Certification Scheme (MCERTS) is mandatory.

Accreditation and the Environment
Under EU legislation, every country has a single National Accreditation Body (NAB), whose role is to carry out the independent third-party assessment of organisations that offer testing, calibration, inspection and certification services. The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) has been the sole accreditation body recognised by government since its formation in 1995 and was made the official NAB for the UK in 2010.

Achieving UKAS-accredited status is no mean feat. The organisation applying will undergo a four year assessment cycle, consisting of two thorough visiting assessments and two further surveillance visits. During each of the visits the organisation will have to demonstrate that it is technically competent, that its staff is suitably qualified, its working practices are fit for purpose, and the appropriate equipment is being used. Internationally recognised standards are employed, meaning that once achieved accredited status can be utilised in 135 economies across the world.

MCERTS Accreditation

Stack emissions monitoring was the first area to be accredited under the Environment Agency’s MCERTS performance standard. Over the years the MCERTS scheme has steadily expanded to cover a greater number of areas, making MCERTS a more comprehensive and robust way of assessing environmental emissions. Despite adding water and soil to list of areas that can be accredited, there is still room to expand the scheme even further.

The accreditation of MCERTS activity falls into two disciplines: sampling and analysis. As of 1st June 2010 both the sampling and analysis of water can be accredited under MCERTS. However, as the scheme currently stands, it is only the sampling of stack emissions and the analysis of soil that fall under MCERTS accreditation. Efforts to address this potential shortfall are well underway.

In relation to the collection of soil samples, BS 10175 is a new code of practice that relates to the investigation of contaminated land and soil sampling. As well as containing several references to MCERTS and UKAS, there is support from the Environmental Industry Commission and the Society of Chemical Industry for soil sampling to be covered by accreditation. Similarly, the Association of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Specialists also encourages its members to provide high quality, appropriate, reliable and independent testing services by supporting external accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025.

In addition, the Source Testing Association is working in conjunction with the Environment Agency, UKAS and representatives of accredited testing laboratories to ensure that greater emphasis is placed on the quality of the analysis samples taken during stack monitoring campaigns.

Beyond MCERTS

In addition to MCERTS, there are other areas of environmental monitoring that can be accredited. The growth of the number of accreditation based schemes has reached the point where accreditation is fast becoming the preferred method of quality assurance in environmental management. Acting as the environmental management equivalent of the ISO 9000 series of standards, ISO 14001 gives companies the opportunity to gain accredited certification for adopting the best environmental management system practices.

The need for consistency in the assessment of life cycle greenhouse gas emissions goods and services resulted in the development Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 2050. Although there have been verification bodies doing a very good job of assessing greenhouse gas emissions, there was historically no consistent standard by which they could be measured. This meant that those procuring emissions monitoring services could not easily determine which organisations are competent. Through the development of the scheme, which is sponsored by The Carbon Trust and Defra, these guarantees now exist, meaning that end-users can have confidence in the services they procure.

Summary

Reliability is a key driver in any monitoring, measurement and analysis activity. Whether sourced from inside or outside the organisation, the users of such services need to know that the data that they receive is reliable and accurate. Enlisting a UKAS-accredited organisation to carry out these services provides that assurance. Where the results will be used in to show compliance with legislation it is important to be able to demonstrate that the results obtained are accurate.

As demonstrated by the recent rapid growth in the number of MCERTS services that can be accredited, accreditation looks set to become the de facto standard for quality assurance in environmental management. By engaging the services of an organisation that is accredited to ISO/IEC 17025 for MCERTS, process controllers can ensure that they will receive a service that is technically competent, fit for purpose and operating in line with best practices.

For more information on UKAS or accreditation, visit www.ukas.com Full details of the MCERTS schemes can be found at www.mcerts.net