Manheim Remarketing has been awarded the international ISO 14001 Environmental Management Standard, making it the first of the UK’s ‘big three’ remarketing businesses to have successfully completed the comprehensive audit process. The two-year assessment programme has involved employees across the whole organisation engaging in training days and internal reviews, with the final formal audit taking place in Autumn 2012.

Pete Lacey, Manheim’s group risk manager, commented: “As one of the first vehicle remarketing companies to gain this standard, we have achieved a significant reduction in our environmental impact across all of our locations. We now have greater environmental compliance awareness across the organisation, as well as a higher level of engagement with corporate responsibility.

“To deliver on our environmental commitments, the Manheim team has worked closely with both internal and external partners to the business. The focus has been on recycling at every opportunity, carefully disposing of hazardous material and looking at ways to reduce the total fuel used across the business. We are also proud that many of our preferred suppliers, such as PJM Valeting, have joined us on the journey to environmental best practice.”

PJM Valeting, which operates vehicle preparation facilities across Manheim’s UK sites, has been awarded the five star mark by the Green Achiever Scheme, which endorses businesses that strive towards environmental best practice. The award recognises PJM’s commitment to limiting the temperature of its washes to save fuel, reducing energy consumption by setting machinery on timers and recycling a wide range of waste streams.

Mike Pilkington, Manheim’s chief strategy officer, added: “The vehicle remarketing industry is going through a significant period of evolution. We are seeing mobile technologies, customer empowerment and environmental legislation shaping the remarketing industry of the future. At Manheim, we are playing a key role in setting the standards and benchmarks by which the industry will be measured, which is why I am delighted that we have achieved the ISO 14001 standard on our first attempt.”