ISO 14001 Environmental Management System: Ergon Refining, Inc.

Ergon Refining, Inc. (ERI) in Vicksburg, Mississippi has done it again; accomplishing another “First!” among the Ergon, Inc., family of companies. ERI has long been a leader in quality innovations and, in December 2010, became the first Ergon business registered in Environmental Management System (EMS) standards set by the International Organization of Standardization (ISO) in Geneva, Switzerland’s 14001:2004 requirements.

Their first ISO Standard

In the summer of 1992, ERI first broke this best-business-practices trail by being the first to investigate different management standards that would best serve Ergon in compliance and registration to formal quality systems. Within three months, the executive decision was made for alignment and affiliation with the International Organization for Standardization, the world’s largest developer and publisher of international business standards.

The universal reference to “ISO”, which is the Greek root word for “equal, same, or uniform” in referring to business protocols, unifies the organization and standards across countries, regardless of language. This set of management and leadership standards was chosen because of their global “seal of excellence” standing and recognition among 160 member countries. The requirements for these international standards for business, government, and society are distilled from almost 65 years’ examination of the most impactful strategies for business success. ERI partnered with parent company Ergon, Inc., in Jackson, Mississippi, to secure greater reliability and innovation in today’s challenging and competitive marketplace by establishing a Quality Council of company and corporate leaders to guide these efforts, a mission that continues today by the Operating Committee (OpsCom), and Executive Committee.

ERI was Ergon’s first company to be registered to the ISO 9001:1994 Quality Management System standards in February, 1996 and grew with each successive upgrade/improvement of requirements in 2000, 2004, and 2008, respectively. In November 2010 they earned registration after 15 months’ pursuit of an additional standard, the ISO 14001:2004 Environmental Management System (EMS).

The Environmental Management System Standard

Registration to these EMS standards provides organizations with a powerful management tool to improve their control of and influence over environmental performance by accomplishing three key functions:

1. identifying and controlling the environmental impact of their activities, products and services
2. continually improving their environmental performance, and
3. implementing a systematic approach to setting environmental objectives and targets, achieving these, and demonstrating that they’ve been achieved.

The benefits of positively addressing environmental issues in these ways not only safeguard the preservation of the environment, but are also linked to business performance and profitability while improving the corporate image, enhancing access to export markets, providing a common reference for communicating environmental issues with customers, regulators, the public, and other stakeholders.

ERI’s Compliance Manager, Steve Riles, a twenty-eight year employee of Ergon Refining, says their registration to ISO 14001 allows a much broader footprint of ERI in the global marketplace. “The initial driver for ISO 14001 was global competition. While such competitiveness in the marketplace is valid, there are other benefits that we should take advantage of to get the full value out of EMS. As this system matures, we should see improvements in managing the environmental risks that all refineries must manage. Improvements in this area can lead to improvements in productivity and profitability. ERI employees have a great deal of pride in our facility, and in the work that gets done here every day. The oil industry has taken a big hit in the eyes of the public over the last couple of years. We want Ergon Refining to be known for being highly competitive while taking our environmental responsibilities seriously.”

ERI currently supplies product and formulas to the United States and 23 other countries, with greater demand surfacing each year.

David Cain, an internal Management Systems Consultant with Ergon’s Systems and Performance Improvement Department, and the corporate audit program coordinator who was also an advisor for this implementation, said the external auditors expressed shock that no nonconformances were found during their audit, telling him, “We are rarely able to register a first-time company to this standard without some findings during the audit. The ERI project team should be commended for this distinction in their implementation performance.”

The ERI Implementation Team for ISO 14001:2004 who worked August 2009 – November 2010 are:

• Billy Stribling
• Charlie Bennett
• Conor Storey
• David Cain
• Steve Riles
• Jake Niehaus
• Paul Reed
• Tommy Baker
• Daniel Riles

Once again, by ERI breaking new ground in formalizing their best business practices for Ergon, they will be the internal experts who assist other operations and divisions to follow in ISO 14001 EMS compliance / registration. Another “win:win proposition” for Ergon companies at-large, thanks to Ergon Refining, Inc.

For more information on the International Organization of Standardization, visit: www.iso.org

For more information on developing your business for compliance with ISO’s Environmental Management System standards, contact Ergon’s Systems and Performance Improvement Department in Jackson, Mississippi: 1-601-933-3127.