JSIF ISO Certification Upgraded

The Jamaica Social Investment Fund’s (JSIF’s) International Organization for Standardization (ISO) environmental management certification has been upgraded from ISO 14001:2004 to ISO 14001:2015.

This was disclosed by JSIF’s Managing Director, Omar Sweeney, who said this will, among other things, allow the entity and, by extension, Jamaica to access increased financing from international funding partners to undertake projects designed to safeguard the environment.

He was speaking at the Kiwanis Club of Barbican’s third anniversary meeting at the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Commission’s offices on Hagley Park Road in Kingston on Tuesday (January 16).

Mr. Sweeney said JSIF will be better able to positively impact the communities where the development projects it administers are implemented, in keeping with global standards.

“What that means is that… all of our practices, procedures and policies (are) certified to the international standard of ISO, in terms of how contractors work and how we leave the environment when projects are (completed),” Mr. Sweeney indicated.

One example of this is the solid waste management system sub-project, implemented under the World Bank-funded Integrated Community Development Project.

The Jamaica Social Investment Fund was first accredited in 2009 when it gained ISO 14001:2004 certification, which strengthened the agency’s overall environmental management capacity to carry out its various development projects.

The agency has the distinction of currently being the only State entity in Jamaica and the wider Commonwealth Caribbean to attain this level of environmental accreditation.

The ISO 14001 standard specifies a set of requirements for environmental management systems.