At Quintas Energy a key objective is to be the leaders in our field. We want to be the best at what we do – and when we express this with confidence, for our clients to share that confidence.
We understand that although fundamental to a partnership, trust is hard to measure. It’s impossible to put a price tag on the value a supplier trusted to maintain the highest standards brings to a contract. We are confident the work we do and the results we deliver are the best proof of our dedication to this, but clients also need to share our certainty when engaging Quintas’ services.
This is when the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) joins the game. Since its foundation in 1947, it has brought together experts from across the globe to agree on more than 25,000 international standards, defining best practices for anything from production to process management.
Since Quintas Energy has been certified to several ISO standards for several years we’re especially proud to have recently achieved its accreditation to an Integrated Management System (IMS) focused on Safety, Health, Environment and Quality (SHEQ), following audits by international certification agency Bureau Veritas.
This significant achievement follows several months of preparation and underlines our commitment to excellent customer service, placing stakeholder safety and protecting the wider environment front and centre of our activities.
Why Quintas has developed its IMS
Complex organisations can be prone to compartmentalisation, where different management systems are considered in isolation: quality management is overseen by one team, SHEQ is handled by another, while a third deals with environmental issues, and yet another with information security. This can lead to common causes being overlooked, opportunities being missed – or worse, clashes between different interests.
A high-functioning IMS integrates every system and process into an overarching framework, empowering all teams to work as a single unit which pursues its specialist goals as part of common objectives. This makes for seamless management processes, leading in turn to a more efficient business. From a potential client’s point of view, certification for an IMS provides clear and visible conformation that our actions meet our aspirations when it comes to quality of service and rock-solid risk management.
How it works
Without such standards in place, we would be unable to conduct business with some of our major clients, so passing the IMS audit was vital.
Quintas Energy’s IMS certification comprises four elements corresponding to different management areas and their respective certifications: ISO 9001 quality management, ISO 45001 occupational health & safety management, ISO 14001 environmental management and ISO 27001 information security management.
- ISO 9001. This standard is based on seven quality management principles, including a strong customer focus, evidence-based decision making and an ongoing commitment to excellence. Quintas has been ISO 9001 certified since 2019.
- ISO 14001. Accreditation to this standard shows an organisation strives to minimise its environmental impact, including its contribution to climate change, full regulatory compliance, and meeting environmental objectives via effective resource use and waste management, performance monitoring and stakeholder involvement.
- ISO 45001. For this certification an organisation must demonstrate a robust and comprehensive occupational health and safety (OH&S) management system, effectively managing risks and minimising workplace injuries, sickness and accidents.
- ISO 27001. To achieve this accreditation, an organisation must show it has control systems in place to keep information assets safe and secure. To keep it, it must continually monitor, review and improve them, keeping pace with constantly evolving cyber threats.
Previously, these elements were audited separately, whereas the new IMS certification process takes a holistic view of business administration. This enables more effective risk management for all systems and processes.
As the three ISO standards also emphasise continuous improvement, Quintas Energy will be audited for SHEQ annually to ensure full compliance and see that our consistently high service standards are maintained.
In the next few months, ISO 55001 – detailing the necessary criteria for establishing, implementing, maintaining, and improving an asset management system – will also be integrated into Quintas Energy’s administrative framework.
How we did it
Hard work across the Quintas team helped us fly through the certification process and achieve this superb result. Preparing all the necessary documentation and other key indicators for the auditors was a daunting task, but they took it in their stride.
Due to this across-the-board effort, Quintas Energy successfully passed the Phase 1 Audit in November. Phase 2 took place the following month and we passed with Zero Non-Conformances. Moreover, auditors noting many areas of outstanding performance:
- High level operational and business management risk analysis and associated controls.
- The internal SHEQ communication channel.
- The Management System was deemed well-structured and fully-fledged despite its newness – effectively integrating key processes and aligning with Quintas’ objectives.
- Senior management showed great commitment to the project, leading by example.
- A strong established culture of environmental and safety awareness among Quintas employees.
- A data-driven Management System: By systematically collecting, analysing and monitoring KPIs, Quintas constantly evaluates its processes’ effectiveness, spots areas for improvement and proactively responds to risks and opportunities.
Achilles Scoring: excellence and transparency at-a-glance
Achieving IMS certification was the main goal of this project, but for a truly integrated management system, we felt a little more was needed. After all, the aim is to provide a solid touchstone for quality that current and future clients can rely on. There are few accreditations more trustworthy that ISO, but to help stay committed to continuous improvement, we wanted to make it as easy as possible for customers to see why they can trust us to provide the best possible services. That’s why we have adopted the Achilles Sustainability Score.
Achilles is a leader in supply chain risk and performance management, and its comprehensive sustainability score helps organisations across the world with supply chain benchmarking and comparison. Using a methodical framework, Achilles assesses a supply organisation’s processes, policies and systems in four areas: environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG), occupational health and safety (OH&S), cybersecurity and financial management, eventually assigning the organisation a rating in each area, plus an overall percentage score – with 51-60 rated “Satisfactory”, 61-75 scoring “Good”, 76-85 “Very Good” and 86-100 being an “Excellent” rating.
We are very proud to announce that Achilles has rated the Quintas Energy group “Excellent”, placing us well over the industry average for each area with a current overall score of 89. This places us near the top of our field, with only a handful of other companies also in the running.
This is great news for our customers: not only do they have instant assurance of our status as a trusted service supplier which runs a tight ship when it comes to risk management, they can also be assured of our passion for continuous improvement. Achilles Score facilitates this by suggesting specific risk areas and mutual opportunities for further progress available to buyer and suppliers alike. Upon implementation, these lead to a higher Achilles Score, so that results can be seen clearly.
Contract us with confidence
No organisation should rest on its laurels, especially when it comes to vital areas like managing risk and SHEQ. It should be the goal of every service supplier to aim for the best and to keep aiming higher. At Quintas Energy we are devoted to this ideal and delighted to be able to demonstrate it so clearly.
Whether you’re looking for the very best asset management for your solar energy or storage portfolio or if you’re seeking the most expert technical advice, we know that you can trust us to deliver – and thanks to our IMS accreditation we can prove it at a glance. To find out more, take a look at our service catalogue.
