Environmental management

Administrative functions that develop, implement, and monitor the environmental policy of an organization.

Environmental management system

Organizational structure, planning activities, responsibilities, practices, procedures, processes, resources, and standards (such as ISO 14000 or BS 7750) employed in formulating an organization's environmental policy and achieving its objectives on both short- and long-term basis.

Challenges of Environmental Management

Environmental management involves more than just recycling in the office.

Corporations that do not recognize the impact of environmental management on their organizations cannot expect to remain competitive. Managers should make every effort to make ethics based decisions, i.e., manage environmental challenges voluntarily and on their own terms, rather than making compliance based decisions (changes made only when required by law). Companies that choose to implement best practices based on ethical standards (which are often far more strict than regulatory standards) have the opportunity to become known as leaders within their individual industries.

Challenges of Environmental Management

Waste Management
Waste management encompasses all forms of waste, from garbage to gases.

Managers must first identify all types of waste produced by the organization, from garbage to gases.

They must then determine a way of measuring this waste.

Finally, they must choose and implement best practices for both reducing waste and disposing of those wastes that cannot be completely eliminated.

In some cases, one company's waste can be another company's fuel source.
For example, landfill gases can be used to fuel a boiler. Managers must be prepared to invent creative ways of decreasing the amount of waste their organizations put into the environment.

Challenges of Environmental Management

Developing Green Products
Consumers want green products.
According to the Conservation Value Institute, green products are those "whose manufacturing, purchase and use allows for economic development while still conserving the earth's biological diversity and supporting ecological processes and the components of our economy and quality of life that require natural resources." One of the challenges of environmental management lies in developing products that, by design, will create less waste. Consumers are interested in purchasing green products more than ever now, and the numbers of consumers who actively seek out green products is also growing.

Challenges of Environmental Management

Stakeholder Participation
Employees and other stakeholders must be willing participants.

Stakeholder participation is perhaps one of the greatest challenges of environmental management. Without stakeholder buy-in, environmental initiatives will likely fail. Employees, customers and even the local community are all stakeholders, and their participation is key to the success of any environmental management initiative. Environmental management must be institutionalized. In other words, it must be integrated into the organizational culture so that participation is a given. Stakeholders must be educated on the importance of environmental management before they can embrace and contribute to its ultimate success.

Environmental Management Procedures

Environmental management is the process of implementing public policy in how humans interact in a given environmental setting. This policy is set to promote the conservation and preservation of natural resources while allowing for the exploitation of those same resources. In such a dual role, as both a conservator and supplier, the environmental manager is forced to constantly make critical decisions involving the environment, industry and individual citizens.

Environmental Management Procedures

People Management
Perhaps the most difficult facet of environmental management is liasing with community organizations, schools, environmental concerns, agricultural collectives, neighbors of locale, environmental activist organizations, farmers, miners, drillers, and many other interest groups that are opportunities for achieving superior management of protected resources. Volunteers effectively multiply the power of an organization's professional ranks allowing more efficiency in conservation, preservation, and recreational programs. Farmers and businessmen form strong networks that can impact on successful management practices.

Environmental Management Procedures

Preservation Management
Preservation is a major task of environmental management; that of preserving the environment unchanged for future generations.
This means active curtailing of tourism, hiking, logging, mining and other interests which may damage a protected locale. And many of these interests are represented by lobbying and trade associations with major political and economic resources. This results in the responsible manager sometimes being villified by the very public they seek to serve, but they have to be true to the policy they represent.

Environmental Management Procedures

Conservation Management
Conservation is the act of using natural resources appropriately and reasonably assuring a sustainable yield with minimal impact on an ecosystem.
In the US the national forests are excellent examples of conservationism. They allow logging industries to harvest trees (and replant cleared acreage) and mining industries to claim ores from the ground (with proper slag disposal) while at the same time promoting hunting, boating, camping, and other recreational activities to the US public. Being able to function successfully in all these roles can only be the job of intelligent and well trained managers

Environmental Management System

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an Environmental Management System (EMS) is a set of practices that enable an organization to reduce its environmental impacts. It is based on a "Plan, Do, Check, Act" model plan.
The EMS Model The "Plan, Do, Check, Act" model ensures that environmental matters are systematically identified, controlled and monitored. Using this approach will help to ensure that an organization's environmental performance improves over time.

Environmental Management System

Plan
The first step in building an Environmental Management System is to devise a plan to define the organization's goals and to determine what is needed to improve the organization's environmental performance. This step should include securing top management commitment, building an implementation team, preparing a budget and securing resources and support from others.

Do
Once the initial step has been completed, the next step is to understand the 17 elements listed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and put the key processes in place.

Check
During this step, audits are conducted, and records are managed in accordance with the organization's standards and procedures. Resolve any issues and create a preventative action process.

Act
Conduct management reviews during this final stage of the EMS model using the results from the internal audit. Management should determine which changes are needed to the organizational EMS model at this time.

How to Develop an Environmental Management System

An Environmental Management System is the means by which an organization addresses immediate and long-term impacts of its products, services and processes on the environment. It involves the allocation of resources, assignment of responsibility and ongoing evaluation of practices, procedures and processes with regard to environmental impact. It involves developing, implementing and maintaining policy for environmental protection and it focuses on continuous improvement.

Most environmental management systems follow the Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle (PDCA) developed by Edward Deming in the 1950s and encouraged today by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

How to Develop an Environmental Management System

1 Develop an environmental policy statement

Develop an environmental policy statement for the organization. This is a declaration of the organization's commitment to the environment and continual improvement of environmental practices. A well-written environmental policy statement clearly outlines where a company stands on environmental matters for all stakeholders. 2 Develop procedures for implementing the organizations environmental policy Develop procedures for implementing the organizations environmental policy statement. This involves Identifying environmental impacts resulting from the organization's activities and developing an environmental management plan to control and minimize those impacts. Many organizations integrate the EMS into a larger overall sustainability program that incorporates economic and social performance as well as environmental performance.

How to Develop an Environmental Management System

3 Develop measurable objectives and targets Develop measurable objectives and targets for the environmental management plan regarding environmental impact. Measurable objectives and targets will provide a means for evaluating results and identifying areas for improvement. For example, a company wants to reduce CO2 emissions from it's factories by 5% per year. This is a measurable objective and the company can continually seek ways to improve on this objective. 4 Allocate resources and assign responsibilities Allocate resources and assign responsibilities for implementing the environmental management plan.

Train employees on specific job duties regarding their environmental responsibilities. To be effective, the environmental management plan must be integrated into the organization's operational processes. For example, recycling can be implemented wherever possible and employees can be trained on proper waste disposal techniques, i.e., separating hazardous waste materials from landfill materials.

How to Develop an Environmental Management System

5 Review and analyze the results
Review and analyze the results of the environmental management plan to identify areas for improvement. The review and analysis should be a continuous process. Reports should be provided on a periodic basis that show the results of the plan for achieving the measurable objectives and targets, and adjustments to procedures should be made as needed to improve results.

What Are the Benefits of an Environmental Management System?

An environmental management system (EMS) is a set of guidelines developed by an organization to minimize its environmental impact. Typically, a team of staff members create an EMS, with management support and guidance. The success of an EMS depends upon explicit procedures, with a means to review and implement continual improvement. An EMS also provides a means to train staff and take corrective action as necessary should the implementation of the plan reveal any shortcomings.

What Are the Benefits of an Environmental Management System?

Compliance
An EMS will encourage compliance with environmental regulations and reduce the risk of causing environmental impacts.

Reduce Costs
Implementation of an EMS will help reduce costs and improve an organization's efficiency, through a detailed review of practices.

Environmental Ethic
Creating an EMS demonstrates to the public, investors, and other stakeholders a sincere environmental ethic and enhances an organization's public image.

Employee Morale
Development of an EMS increases employee morale by encouraging staff input and helping to create a sense of ownership.

Awareness
An organization's EMS can have far-reaching environmental effects by increasing employee awareness of environmental issues and perhaps encouraging implementation at home.

Pros and Cons of Environmental Management Plans

An environmental management plan (EMP) is a combination of preventive and monitoring activities that are set within a time line. Also known as an environmental management system (EMS), it is a management strategy that enables organizations to implement and comply with environmental protection measures. But the plan is not static as it involves continuous planning, implementation and assessment.

EMPs have remarkable benefits, but they also have some limitations.

Pros and Cons of Environmental Management Plans

Preservation of Resources
At the core of EMPs is the reduction of waste within an organization. These plans provide an organization with a framework of how to run sustainable business operations. Example of aspects that EMPs promote include: lowering energy consumption, reducing the use of office paper, recycling and mitigating pollution. EMPs also help organizations assess the impact and feasibility of these activities and how they can be improved on.

Reduced Liability
EMPs assist businesses to identify environmental hazards and thus alleviate them beforehand. In this way, these plans encourage compliance with existing national, state and local environmental laws. They also reduce the hazards that employees may encounter in the workplace, such as coming into contact with toxins and pollutants. Liability is also reduced, when dealing with customers, as a business is able to produce and distribute environmentally-safe products.

Public Image Improvement

There is a growing interest among customers, shareholders, suppliers, businesses and governments in environmental preservation and sustainability. Businesses that have EMPs in place are able to engage in sustainable business activities, such as lowering energy consumption or recycling. Customers and other shareholders are becoming more interested in dealing with businesses that are sustainable and reducing pollution than those which are not.

Pros and Cons of Environmental Management Plans

Implementation
The cost of implementing EMPs is a primary disadvantage. Although not always the case, EMPs may require the purchase of new environmentally-friendly and sustainable equipment, such as energy saving machines. Design and implementation of the system may require hiring a consultant. Other costs may include employee training, as well as auditing of the system by a third party, environmental body. Organizations that opt to register for international recognition, such as with the International Organization For Standardization (ISO) 14001 certificate, could incur fees as high as $10,000 annually.

Compliance Difficulties
Admittedly, EMPs can often be complex cycles of planning, implementation, assessment and evaluation. There are various national and international standards, such as the ISO 14001, that organizations may be required to sign up to and comply with. Due to this complexity, organizations and their employees may not be able to fully comply with every aspect of the system.