In the organisations involved in industrial, commercial and public sector environment the environmental management is focused on the control of the resources used and the environmental impact business activities have.
A well defined and effective approach will highly depend on the existence of following elements:
- Environmental policy - how the system is managed and its goals
- Environmental management processes developed
- Effective monitoring and evaluation
- Action plans and their progress
- Periodic review
Such framework is generally based on Deming's Plan-Do-Check-Act principles.
Plan - what are we going to do. It involves establishing a clear policy and determining the main problems we are trying to overcome.
Do - pursue the goals. It involves setting of actions which will allow us to achieve the goals and be monitored.
Check. This involves monitoring of the progress of actions taken and determining these are progressing to plan.
Act - on what we have learned. It involves reviewing the policy and adapting it to changes and the environment.
The Benefits
Environmental management systems will vary among the organisations, but typically these will include controlling waste, emissions, energy use, transport and consumption of materials.
The system is very similar to there management systems. It will assess the business stand on the environment, helps to identify risks, opportunities and impact, saves money and especially ensures to comply with environmental legislation. It can also help improvements in managing business resources and credibility of the business activities.
Gaining external certification can enhance business trust of customers and stakeholders. ISO 14001, BS 8555, or Ec-management and Audit Scheme can also be self-certified. However, many organisations prefer external certification due to the requirement from customers and suppliers.
The Steps
The process of implementing of an effective Environmental Management system starts with setting a baseline. It means an evaluation on where the business stands now. It generally include assessment of the environmental impact organisation has, the environmental history and determination of relevant environmental legislation applicable to the business. Some organisations perform SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis to get the clear picture of risks and opportunities.
The cornerstone is however to ensure we can identify the regulations applicable and ensuring we apply them to day-to-day activities.
Once we have identified the legislation we must work through them one-by-one to see how well the business is performing. It can be a very valuable process of determination where performance can be improved. If we uncover any areas where regulatory requirements are not met we must ensure we address them immediately.
After we have established the policy and checked relevant legal obligations we want to move to the step of setting our goals and objectives. Established policy, should be a guidance for all the steps. It should establish the leadership commitment to the principles of environmental management, commitment to comply with environmental regulations, commitment to educate employees and how the policy will be managed, reviewed and maintained.
After policy is implemented short term targets should be established. This could include reducing CO2 emissions, cost reduction targets and KPIs. We should ensure that the targets and goals are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound).
It is essential to carry define the management responsibility for each area of the policy. This is to ensure leaders are taking actions and feel accountable for environmental efforts.
For significant impact, relevant procedures should be implemented to document steps taken and control the processes.
All staff need to be aware of the management system principles, therefore it is a good idea to run training sessions to keep the communication consistent. Employees need to understand the impact of their activities and the role they play in making the business successful.
Monitoring and updating should be a part of the processes. For this purpose, management review meetings are generally held with the leadership teams. This allows to keep an eye on the targets and provide relevant resources required to take challenges and setbacks.
Once the review is done, actions must be taken to address more effective ways of doing thongs as a result.
Bibliography:
The National Archives, September 2012, Environmental Management system (EMS) - the Basics - sourced from https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20120905033230/http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?r.l1=1079068363&topicId=1079422683&r.l2 accessed 25/07/2021
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