2002 Environment Award
At the Wales Environment award ceremony held in Cardiff in November,
Gower Chemicals were runners-up in the category for companies with
less than 50 employees. Our Site Services Manager, Derek George,
and Operations Manager, Andrew Flower represented the Company at
the ceremony , and were delighted to receive the award on behalf
of the Company.
The award is in recognition of the environmental improvements made
at the Crymlyn Burrows site in recent years, this includes improved
storage facilities, a new drainage system and a fully integral bunded
area for storage, blending and dilution.
The Company has been accredited to ISO 14001 Environmental
Management System since April 2000, and has it's own Environmental
Division which includes Waste Management. The Company is continuing
to work with many of it's customers and the local community in ensuring
that good environmental practices are maintained.
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Award for Business
Wales largest independent Chemical Distributor, Gower Chemicals,
are one of 3-organistations nominated by the judges in the category
of 'Award for Business with less than 50 Employees' at this year's
Wales Environment Awards being held next month.
Gower Chemicals, based in Crymlyn Burrows, Swansea, will be celebrating
25 year's in business next year, and over the past 12-months their
Crymlyn Burrows site has been transformed by the construction of
a state of the art chemical storage, blending and dilution facility.
Bulk storage tanks with integral bunds have been installed on a
purpose built area of the site which includes a secondary bund as
a backup. The new storage tanks have sensors fitted which are linked
to an alarm system enabling early detection of any chemical release.
The site drainage system has been completely replaced with a modern
system allowing any spillage's of product to be collected and transferred
to holding tanks where it is treated prior to offsite disposal.
The system minimises the volume of product sent for disposal.
The Company was accredited to ISO 14001 Environmental Management
System in April 2000, and has implemented various improvements involving
all members of the workforce. Most of the improvements have been
based on housekeeping standards, waste is segregated; paper is reused;
water use is monitored; and where possible liquor from scrubber
units is reused through the process.
Pressure from customers, the local community, demands in meeting
ever increasing legislative requirements and also to complement
our own Waste Management Division only added weight to why the Company
should improve it's own Environmental Management. Through its own
waste management the Company has been able to advise many of it's
own customers in the handling and disposal of chemicals. The Company
has an ongoing commitment to reduce any possible environmental impact
through a programme of continuous improvement.
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Legionella Awareness
Gower Chemicals Ltd of Swansea delivered a successful Legionella
Awareness Session at a recent client day hosted by Marsh, the world's
largest Insurance Broker, for Risk Managers from the Unitary Authorities
throughout Wales.
Mike Sullivan, Managing Director of WCS Environmental, Gower's
specialist legionella control operation told the audience that they
cannot delegate their statutory responsibility for Legionella Control
to a specialist contractor, although they should seek advice from
a water treatment specialist who is a member of the Code of Conduct
Association for Legionella Control, a body sponsored by the HSE.
He outlined the process which the "responsible Person"
nominated by the organisation should follow. Firstly to conduct
a survey to record and map all water services in each building and
carry out a full risk Assessment to establish the Risk of Legionella
occurring in those services. The next step is to design a system
to manage the Risk, take any remedial action necessary, and keep
records to support the actions carried out. Mr Sullivan then outlined
the contractors and client's obligations under the Code of Conduct
for Legionella Control and told his audience that each of their
organisation's should be given a copy of the Code of Conduct by
their Water Treatment Service provider.
During the discussion that followed it emerged that Public Liability
Insurance Policies do not routinely cover clients for claims resulting
from legionella, but have to be specifically added to the policy.
Gower Chemicals have developed a full service package for Legionella
Control, which includes a half-day awareness training session, a
self-assessment questionnaire and an audit scheme to ensure compliance
with the HSE Approved Code of Practice (L8) and the Code of Conduct
for Legionella Control.
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Environmental partnership a hit Evening
Post Nov 2001
SWANSEA-BASED Gower Chemicals has played a major role in an £80,000
environment initiative.
Gower Chemicals helped one of its customers, Transco to achieve
"a significant improvement in the standard of risk control
associated with the special waste process", according to an
ISO 14001 surveillance audit.
The link also helped Transco save up to 15 percent in costs. A
partnership between Gower Chemicals and Transco over more than eight
months introduced new procedures for the disposal of hazardous waste.
As a result Transco won the focused action category at the annual
dinner of Business in the Community Wales and was praised for its
approach to health and safety in the workplace.
Paul Gatcliffe, Gower Chemical's waste management division business
manager, said "We are able to help Transco develop a new tracking
system for hazardous waste which includes a full audit trail right
through to ultimate disposal.
"This is an excellent example of how effective the provision
of total waste management consultancy can be and reflects our own
moves to develop our business in this direction."
Steve Hutchins, Transco's health, safety and environmental manager
for the South West added: "The new procedures are clearer and
easier to understand and operate and greatly reduce the risk of
and environmental accident.
"We've been highly praised for this initiative by our auditors
and as a result have cemented and improved our compliance with ISO
14001. And by cutting administration time we've produced annual
cost savings of between 10-15 percent."
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Plant expansions brings new jobs
Western Mail 01-06-2001
GOWER Chemicals of Swansea has announced a £785,000 expansion
which will safeguard 60 existing jobs and create a further 10 over
the next three years.
The company, which has received £217,000 in regional selective
assistance from the National Assembly, is to modernise and expand
its plant at Crymlyn Burrows.
The company's finance director, Ian Butcher, said, "we are
delighted that we are at last in a position to upgrade our facilities.
Although getting to this stage has taken rather longer than we would
have liked, upgrading the infrastructure and manufacturing capability
here will protect existing business and provide increased opportunities
in the intensively competitive global market place in which we operate."
Conservative Swansea West AM Alun Cairns said, "this is excellent
news for Swansea and Gower Chemicals with the new jobs about to
be created. I was very concerned when Gower's first application
for RSA was rejected. It seemed quite obvious to me that Gower Chemical's
expansion plans met the principle of the RSA grant support scheme."
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Gower Chemicals achieves ISO 14001
Gower Chemicals are pleased to announce their continued commitment
to good environmental practice has been recognised through the achievement
of ISO 14001 Environmental Management System. Our Environmental
Management system was successfully assessed against ISO 14001 by
the BSI in April. Promoting environmental awareness to all employees,
together with identifying our environmental aspects and introducing
a series of programs to monitor and improve our environmental performance
has been paramount in our achievement of ISO 14001.
Already holding ISO9002 and BS8800; the site will be ready for
the next millennium when ISO 14001, ISO9002 and the Health & Safety
standard BS8800 form the bedrock for future ISO/BS accreditation.
Our goal is to ensure that company-wide, we have in place, all
the necessary accreditation to demonstrate our purpose in providing
our customers and clients with first-class products and service
and doing so with an awareness of and commitment to all our stakeholders
and our environment.
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Gower Rotherham gains OHSAS 18001 Accreditation
In March, Gower Chemicals Pure Acids Packaging Facility, Rotherham,
gained accreditation to the health and Safety Management system
(OHSAS 18001). The Management system was audited by the BSI, and
together with the accreditation's to ISO 9002 and 14001 already
gained, forms the company approach to an Integrated Management System.
The achievement of the accreditation's demonstrates the commitment
to provide customers with total confidence in our products and the
way in which we operate our business.
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D.G.S.A. (Dangerous Goods Safety Advisor)
New legislation effective on first January 2000 means that any
company involved in the loading, transportation and offloading of
dangerous goods must have a qualified DGSA. The DGSA will be qualified
by holding a Vocational Training Certificate which is obtained by
passing an examination set by SQA. Companies requiring a DGSA can
either employ a qualified person or contract their services on a
consultancy basis. The name and details of the appointed DGSA must
be provided to the Secretary or State or any Goods Vehicle Examiner
on request. We are pleased to announce that we have 2 fully qualified
DGSA's whose services can be used on a consultancy basis. If you
require further details please complete the information form and
e-mail us. Should you wish to speak to a DGSA please contact either
Gareth Griffiths
or Stewart Hiorns.
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