Liniar was established in 1974; its PVCu extrusion operations began in the East Midlands nearly five decades ago.
The company designs and manufactures fenestration and outdoor systems with a comprehensive product range that spans windows, roofs, bi-folding doors, decking and fencing amongst others.
Liniar has built a well-deserved reputation in the PVCu industry as one of the most innovative companies; it uniquely differentiates itself through its sustainability strategy and, as a result, has been shortlisted for various awards and accreditations over the years.
Critical Path are complementary to our team, providing an external perspective for us. They have really understood and integrated themselves within our business and have done a fantastic job – I couldn’t speak highly enough of them!
Before working with us, Liniar was accredited to ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2005 and already held a wide range of environmental policies, processes, and procedures.
Due to the extensive documentation and experience in achieving and managing ISO, the team understood how their organisation impacts the environment and those living or working nearby their purpose-built facilities in Denby, UK.
As a result, there was a strong understanding of continually improving their organisation’s environmental performance and sustainability. However, the team at Liniar required some external support from us to review their site without looking through ‘rose-coloured glasses’.
In 2013, Liniar opened a 60,000-tonne mixing plant and faced the challenge from an environmental standpoint to undertake every aspect of the design and manufacturing process in-house themselves.
We were appointed in the year 2016 to work with Liniar and assist as its external support to help with the transition of the current ISO standards for quality and environmental compliance up to the latest iteration of the standards; ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015.
We needed to consult on everything from the designing lifecycle of the products, the mixing and handling of raw materials, PVCu extrusion, packaging, warehouse, and logistics.
One of the tasks we were faced with was to conduct a sitewide environmental impact survey. The most effective way to complete this survey was to deploy a drone, which allowed us to survey hard-to-reach site areas.
As well as providing ongoing environmental consultancy, we undertook a significant improvement project around Liniar’s emergency preparedness by creating bespoke processes and procedures in the following areas.
Upon conducting the above surveys, we worked with the company’s internal compliance and environmental team to build the environmental documentation into Liniar’s ISO 14001 management system.
As a result, the EMS process includes the following:
We worked with the team at Liniar to build an effective and robust ISO 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS). As a result, the system continually manages corrective measures and environmental objectives with certainty.
To continually maintain its ISO 14001 certification, we work with Liniar to conduct internal audits. In addition, Liniar works with the well-known certifying body, BSI, for its external verification audits.
During the year 2020, when COVID-19 was rife, Liniar closed its doors for six weeks and began manufacturing protective visors to distribute to key workers throughout the UK. Despite the challenges of supply chain disruption and soaring demand, the company’s ISO 14001 external audit with BSI resulted in zero audit findings two years in a row.
We have worked with Liniar for six years, and we cover a vast range of compliance and environmental consulting services. In addition, we have developed a strong working relationship with the management team resulting in a personal invitation to the company’s internal staff Christmas party.
