This is just a post to see whether or not I can update the calendar feature.

ANAB Vice President to Chair International Accreditation Forum


MILWAUKEE, WI—Randy A. Dougherty of the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB) has been elected chair of the International Accreditation Forum (IAF), the world association of national accreditation bodies for management systems, products and personnel.

Dougherty is ANAB vice president and oversees all activities related to the accreditation programs of ANAB, the recognized national accreditation body for management systems certification bodies in the in the United States.

IAF works to enhance confidence and reduce risk in global trade by ensuring that certificates of conformance to international standards can be accepted as equal across national boundaries because national accreditation bodies engage in like practices. Accreditation by IAF member bodies assures users of the competence of the bodies that audit and issue certificates attesting to conformance with international standards.

( Read more... )For more information, visit www.anab.org.

GFSI benchmarking drives equivalency between food safety schemes




The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) Board of Directors announced today that the Global Red Meat Standard (GRMS) has been successfully benchmarked by GFSI. The Global Red Meat Standard, GRMS, managed by the Danish Agriculture & Food Council and launched in late 2006, was developed specifically for slaughtering, cutting, deboning and the sale of red meat and meat products. This benchmarking process has been completed to determine equivalency against an internationally recognized set of food safety requirements, based on industry best practice and sound science.

( Read more... )

Contact: Catherine François
Director, Food Safety Programmes GFSI/Consumer Goods Forum
Tel: +33 1 44 69 84 84
E‐mail: gfsinfo@theconsumergoodsforum.com

About the Global Food Safety Initiative
The GFSI, managed by the Consumer Goods Forum, was set up in 2000 to pursue continuous improvement in food safety management systems, cost efficiency in the supply chain and, above all, safe food for consumers worldwide. 
 

Contat:  Heidie Klingenberg Jorgensen

Quality Consultant

Tel: +45 33 39 43 81

E‐mail: hej@lf.dk

Danish Agriculture & Food Council

Axelborg, Axeltorv 3

1609 Copenhagen V,

Denmark

About the Global Red Meat Standard

The GRMS is a scheme specially developed for the meat industry. Its cornerstone is product safety, focusing on critical areas affecting the maintenance of high meat safety requirements.  For further information please visit www.grms.org or contact the Danish Agriculture & Food Council.

Another Way to find RABQSA Certified Heavy Vehicle Auditors with NHVAS Fatigue Management System Scope

RABQSA International in conjunction with the HVA Auditor Scheme Committee has updated the RABQSA HVA Auditor Scheme to include the National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme Fatigue Management (NHVAS-FM) scope.

From September 29 2008, Basic and Advanced Fatigue Management modules under the National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme (NHVAS) will allow transport operators greater flexibility, in return for managing the risks associated with driver fatigue.

Applicants for RABQSA HVA Auditor Certification should apply for RABQSA HVA Certification to receive, if eligible, the Skill Examiner subsidy, which ends on 30 September 2008.

Auditors that have successfully expanded their scope to include NHVAS Fatigue Management and are eligible to perform NHVAS Fatigue Management audits are listed below. This list will be maintained weekly.  

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact the RABQSA Sydney Office on 02 4728 4600.  

Impact on the environment, employee, and visitor health and safety is a key 2009 focus for Abu Dhabi's tourism industry, with the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority developing its own Environmental, Health and Safety Management  System (EHSMS).  The authority will shortly roll out an industry-wide EHSMS system, while work on sector-wide initiatives continue.

An Abu Dhabi Executive Council decree, issued in 2006, called the 'Abu Dhabi Environmental Health and Safety Law', requires organisations which could pose a signifant risk to the enviornment or the health and safety of employees or the community to develop an EHSMS.  The Abu Dhabi Environment Agency is the body administering this law.

INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF THE NATIONAL ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION LAW

 Interim Report Identified Major Themes for Review

 The independent review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), the Australian Government’s central piece of environmental law, has reached a significant milestone with the release of an interim report.

Reviewer Dr Allan Hawke said the interim report pulls together the key issues raised through public submissions and consultations to date.  “There has been a big response to the review so far. This interim report identifies the major themes that have been raised and seeks to provide focus for the way forward in this review,” Dr Hawke said. “The aim of the interim report is to stimulate discussion as we consider some substantial issues relating to the Act and the extent to which it is achieving its purpose. There are no conclusions or recommendations at this stage. “I encourage interested parties to respond to the interim report. It identifies a number of specific areas where further input is welcome. The aim is that submitters will engage with the choices raised in the report and present ideas about their possible implementation,” he said.

Creative Solution for Phosphorus & Nitrogen Removal from Swedish Lake

Vaxjo, in southern Sweden started, in the 1970s, dredging its lake to remove the phosphorous that was leaking from the lake bed sediments. Next, the phosphorous content of waters discharged into the lake system had to be reduced – and at the same time, a nitrogen removal stage was decided upon. This two stage process needed to start in the treatment plant with the conversion of ammonia to nitrates, a process which – if allowed to proceed naturally in the lake – would actually have consumed more of the all-too-rare oxygen in the water at that time. But then by introducing nitrates to the oxygen depleted lake waters, the bound oxygen contained in the nitrates would be consumed by micro-organisms - a creative and unusual solution.

( Read more... )

For more information please contact
Mattias Feldthusen
mfeldthusen@nordicwater.se
www.nordicwater.se

Article supplied by Minett Media

Paper Industry Giant Prioritizes Green Goals

SCA is a global consumer goods and paper company that develops and produces personal care products, tissue, packaging solutions, publication papers and solid-wood products. It has sales in 90 countries and many well-known brands, including Tena and Tork. SCA has been a pioneer in prioritizing environmental and sustainability issues and published its first environmental report in 1998. In 2008 SCA established a new carbon-dioxide target of a 20% reduction in emissions from fossil fuels from 2005 through 2020. It has also undertaken to reduce its water consumption by 15% from 2005 through 2010 and to reduce the organic content in its wastewater by 30%.

Here are some examples from one of the company's American plants (which uses close to 100% recycled paper as raw material) of the creative ways in which SCA is achieving these ambitious green goals.

SCA's Barton tissue plant, in Alabama, had a state-of-the-art activated sludge wastewater treatment plant installed when it was built in 2003. The Barton plant, near the town of Cherokee on the Tennessee River, has an annual capacity of 180,000 tons of paper converted into napkins, towels and toilet tissue. SCA Tissue North America is among the top three contenders for the Away From Home market in the US and Canada. The plants raw materials come from virtually 100 percent recycled paper consisting of sorted office waste, post-consumer waste and corrugated, sourced from the region. 

Sustainability Training Dates for 2009