The project is designed to provide environmentally-minded young people with the incentive, sponsorship, training and support to develop climate change and sustainable projects that will engage the widest number of people and have the greatest possible positive effect on their communities.

Not only will it have a real impact locally, but it will also help these eco-entrepreneurs to reach out to local, national and international decision makers on the issue of climate change.

As part of LRQA’s role, in addition to providing sponsorship, we will help to equip those involved with leadership and project management skills, knowledge and awareness that will enable them to take the lead and drive forward their climate change projects. They will also be encouraged to share experiences, ideas and views on climate issues with other young leaders in Asia, and globally through the British Council Climate Generation network.

The E-idea Competition is a major opportunity for LRQA to make a proactive, creative and dynamic contribution to climate change.

We are contributing directly to society by supporting these young environmental leaders, and are actually investing in the future by doing something tangible for the environment.

LRQA’s role involves sponsoring the competition, setting the criteria, judging entries, prize giving, and providing seed money to the winners.

By doing this, we are supporting innovation to mitigate the effects of climate change with real financial investment, and applying our climate change expertise in a proactive and creative way.

Also, importantly, by associating ourselves with the British Council, this project also enables us to reinforce our image as a positive environmental brand, and provides a major channel to communicate and expand that brand in Asia.

The potential for this project in communicating and demonstrating LRQA’s position and involvement on climate change and sustainability issues is considerable.

We were established in 1985 in response to the first quality standard, BS 5750, which was launched by the UK Government.

We were the first certification body to gain accreditation for issuing quality management system certificates. We achieved this from the National Accreditation Council for Certification Bodies, now known as the United Kingdom Accreditation Council (UKAS). We now operate in most countries around the world.

Our range of services has also grown and we now offer assessment of environmental and health and safety management systems in most industry sectors.

We also provide verification and validation services, training services and approval for a number of EC Directives.

The markets served by LRQA value our services for their integrity. Critical to this is the need to recognise any potential conflicts of interest in the services provided and to take action to ensure these do not adversely impact on the impartiality, independence and objectivity our actions.

As part of its on-going commitment to impartiality, the top management of LRQA has requested its independent advisory board, the LRQA General Technical Committee, to undertake the role of impartiality committee. LRQA routinely identifies and analyses the possibilities for conflict of interest arising from its relationships and the delivery of its assessment, verification and certification services. Where threats of impartiality are identified the provisions to eliminate or minimize such threats are documented along with data demonstrating their on-going effectiveness. These are made available to the LRQA GTC for consideration as part of their periodic review of the impartiality of the audit, certification and decision making processes of LRQA.