TÜV Rheinland of North America said Thursday, Aug. 22, 2013 it is offering ISO 50001 certification service to companies across all industries "seeking to enhance their energy performance, reduce production costs, and improve overall sustainability and competitiveness in the marketplace."
The ISO 50001 Energy Management System standard focuses exclusively on an organization's energy consumption and improving energy performance, TÜV Rheinland says. The standard provides a roadmap to establish proven processes to manage the supply, use and consumption of energy in industrial, commercial and institutional organizations to achieve energy objectives and targets.
Organizations that already have a fully functioning ISO 14001 Environmental Management System, which manages various activities impacting the environment, can fasttrack the implementation of an Energy Management System. A certified ISO 14001 Environmental Management System potentially has up to 75% of the elements required for ISO 50001 already in place.
"We are seeing a trend that companies certified to ISO 14001 that have identified energy consumption as a significant environmental aspect typically reduce their energy costs on average by 5-10% using a project-by-project approach," said TÜV Rheindland EMS Program Manager Patti Arms.
"While this is a move in the right direction, market drivers are requiring organizations to go beyond this 'low-hanging fruit' to achieve even greater reductions in energy costs and energy intensity," Arm said. "Implementing an ISO 50001 Energy Management System will take organizations to the next level in improving energy performance. In the United States, the US Department of Energy has reported that ISO 50001-certified organizations have achieved reductions in their energy intensity by 6-26% within three years of implementation."
ISO 50001 certification and readiness audits are offered as part of TÜV Rheinland's Management Systems Certification services, which also include ISO 14001, ISO 9001, OHSAS 18001, TS 16949, AS9100, AS9120, TAPA FSR, TAPA TSR, and TAPA TACSS.
Newtown, Conn.-based TÜV Rheinland of North America is a subsidiary of Cologne, Germany-based TÜV Rheinland Group.