Environmental management as part of BREEAM
The Van Gogh Museum houses the largest Van Gogh collection in the world. The museum consists of two buildings: the Rietveld building and the Kurokawa wing. The main glass entrance connects both buildings. The museum attracts about one and a half million visitors annually from all over the world. Robert Jan Pruijn is responsible for management and maintenance at the Van Gogh Museum. Part of this is the BREEAM certification. This also includes ISO 14001, he says.
"Our goal is to introduce as many people as possible to the works and the ideas of Vincent van Gogh. We want to conserve his works properly for as long as possible. This includes research into, for example, the use of color and materials. In order to conserve the works properly, a very strict climate regime is required and attention is paid to the incidence and composition of the light. But everything we do, we want to do in a sustainable way. For that reason, we have BREEAM certification for our building. Part of that is that we can demonstrate that we have sustainable policies in the area of environmental management, for example working with hazardous materials in our restoration studio. That's why we wanted to achieve ISO 14001 certification, as proof."
"Thanks to this certification, we have gone from promise to proof"
Robert Jan Pruijn - Van Gogh Museum
Relaxed atmosphere, sharp questions
Implementing an environmental management system in your organization is something you don't just do. It involves a lot of preparation. The Van Gogh Museum called in a consultancy firm for this, explains Robert Jan: "We first did an internal audit to see how far we had got. That looked good, so we were able to invite an external certifying party for the real audit. We compared several parties for this and Normec Certification came out on top for us. Both in terms of turnaround time and plan of action and also cost."
The total audit process took about a week. First a preliminary survey on paper and then an on-site audit four days in a row. That was intensive, but all went smoothly, indicates Robert Jan: "The auditors from Normec Certification were positively surprised, so that was nice. Of course there were small areas of improvement for us, but not things that blocked our certification. I think the audit went very pleasantly. It went in a very pleasant, organic way. It is still a kind of exam, but it was also very relaxed. The auditors of Normec Certification would chat with you and in the meantime they would ask a sharp question. So they really knew what they were doing with us."
"Normec Certification really did know what they were doing with us."
Robert Jan Pruijn - Van Gogh Museum
From promise to proof
During the audit, it turned out that the Van Gogh Museum already naturally met many of the requirements for ISO 14001 certification. It was already in the capillaries of the organization, so to speak, says Robert Jan: "The outcome of the audit was very positive for a reason. We already had many things in order well before the audit. But thanks in part to the audit by Normec Certification, that was tightened up some more. And the ISO 14001 certification is a structured tool for us to keep ourselves sharp. It really gives us concrete tools to achieve our sustainability goals. Moreover, we can now show the outside world how we have set up our organization. In this way, we have gone from promise to proof."
To remain certified, the management system is audited annually and recertified every three years. However, the Van Gogh Museum sees that annual audit primarily as an opportunity for continuous improvement. As Robert Jan puts it, "We consciously use those moments to make new improvements. Personally, I see the cooperation with Normec Certification in this with confidence."
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