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Environmental Management
Increasing pressure is being placed on all organisations to demonstrate their environmental performance. Increasing public expectation, supply chain pressure and the considerable growth in environmental legislation has led to our current position, where environmental issues must be part of all business strategies.
The benefits of responding to the issue extend beyond responding to public expectation. Environmental management within the public and private sectors can demonstrate improved resource efficiency, cost savings, securing or improving market share, reducing risk and liability and demonstrating Best Value. This latter element will become increasingly important with the requirement being introduced into local authority Best Value inspections.
During the late 1980s, the environment was a major new story for the media and became a high profile agenda. In July 1989, the environment was rated the single greatest problem facing Britain. Public opinion has declined since that time, but public expectations of action remain high.
During the 1980s and early 1990s a wide range of environmental regulations were introduced and the influence of the green consumer grew. The Environmental Protection Act (enacted in 1990) forms the cornerstone of UK environmental legislation. In summer 1992, the Rio Earth Summit brought together all Governments and established the process of Local Agenda 21 and a requirement for all local authorities to prepare environmental action plans. The European Commission shaped the early legislative agenda and continues to form a crucial influence.
For many organisations, reducing the environmental impacts of their operations was a major challenge, particularly in the areas of pollution control and waste management. Faced with increased legislation, industry began to develop new management techniques to deal with the agenda.
In 1992, the British Standards Institute produced BS7750, a specification for Environmental Management Systems. In 1993, the European Commission adopted the first pan-European standard on environmental management, called EMAS (Eco Management and Audit Scheme). Following this lead, the International Standards Organisation published ISO14001, Environmental Management Systems. ISO14001 has now superseded BS7750 and has been adopted as the environmental management system component of EMAS. A suite of the ISO14000 series has been developed, although ISO14001 remains the only certifiable standard.
Compliance with environmental legislation is a basic minimum requirement for any responsible organisation. Legislation continues to develop at a frenetic pace. Many of the UK statutory requirements are based on the requirements of EU law. A recent trend is the tendency towards the use of trading and economic incentives, away from the "command and control" style of regulation.
Over the past five years, a diverse range of legislation has been implemented in the UK including the Landfill Tax Regulations, Special Waste Regulations, Producer Responsibility Obligations Regulations, the Control of Pollution Regulations, Packaging Regulations, Air Quality Regulations, Groundwater Regulations and Surface Water Regulations. The list is extensive, and clearly goes beyond an introductory article such as this.
A major development with implications for businesses of all sizes is the introduction of the Climate Change Levy in April 2001. The levy is intended to help the UK meet its commitment under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by 12.5% by 2012, based on 1990 levels. A new system of Integrated Pollution Prevention Control (IPPC) forms a major piece of legislation within the UK. This is based on a 1996 EU Directive, and brings a range of industrial installations under a new control regime.
There is an increasing trend for organisations to report environmental performance. In 1999 a substantial increase in the number of firms reporting their environmental performance was observed. Across the top 100 firms in 11 countries, some 24% had prepared environmental reports. The UK saw the greatest leap in the number of companies reporting their environmental performance compared to 1996.
In some European countries (including Denmark, Norway and Sweden) legislation requires some sectors to report on their energy, water, waste and raw material consumption. In the UK there are no requirements to report environmental performance. The UK Government has encouraged the use of environmental reporting and has indicated that reports may become compulsory if greater numbers are not produced voluntarily.
An environmental management system (EMS) is an integral element of any organisation’s corporate management system. The focus for the EMS is the nature of environmental issues affected by an organisation’s activities.
In general terms, any EMS should simply aim to ensure that the activities of an organisation are in accordance with its environmental policy. For any organisation wishing to improve its performance, establishing an environmental policy is a good place to start.
There are two internationally recognised EMS: ISO14001 (Environmental Management Systems, Specifications with guidance for use) and EMAS, the European Commission Eco-Management and Audit Scheme.
Over 10,000 certificates have been issued for ISO14001 and this is predicted to rise to over 30,000 within two years. The UK has around 1000 certified sites. Supply chain requirements are expected to boost the level of certification worldwide. Ford Motors, for example, recently told all their manufacturing suppliers to implement ISO14001.
Registrations under the EMAS system lag behind with around 2000 registered sites (half of which are in Germany). Seven UK local authorities are EMAS registered with three having ISO14001 certificates.
The health sector has responded positively to the implementation of EMS with a number of Health Authorities taking forward ISO14001. An introductory scheme, "Greencare", provides a starting kit for environmental management.
The small and medium sized company sector has been slow to respond to EMS. A number of government schemes have been introduced to encourage the implementation of EMS. Small and medium sized enterprises are coming under mounting pressure from customers keen to "green" their supply chain, but many find the prospect of implementing an EMS daunting and are discouraged by the costs. A new BSI/DTI scheme will provide a simplified five step model to achieving ISO14001, which will be promoted to the SME sector.
ISO14001 is applicable to all types and sizes of organisations and is an international voluntary standard. It is the only certifiable standard in the ISO14000 series. It does not state specific environmental performance criteria but describes the core requirements for environmental management necessary for certification.
The principle behind ISO14001 is continual improvement in environmental performance. The basic approach is shown in Figure 1.
- Establishment of environmental policy;
- Planning: legal requirements, objective and target setting, establishing a management programme;
- Implementation and operation: responsibilities, training, document and operational control;
- Checking and corrective action: monitoring and measurement, non- conformance and corrective action, procedures and EMS auditing; and
- Management review: assess progress against defined policy, objectives and procedures.
Third party certification to ISO14001 is by an accredited certification body, although organisations can elect to make a self declaration of compliance.
What is EMAS?
EMAS is similar to ISO14001 in that it requires the establishment of a management system. However a major difference is that EMAS requires the publication of a full environmental statement with independent verification. EMAS requires the completion of full preliminary review, which is assessable. EMAS also requires procedures to ensure procurement and contracted services comply with the company’s environmental policy. In ISO14001, this latter element requires that suppliers and contractors be simply informed of the policy.
EMAS has recently been amended to enable the adoption of ISO14001 as the environmental management system component of EMAS.
Environmental benchmarking is still at an early stage in development. There is, however, growing interest in the development of external and internal environmental indicators. The basic aim is to enable organisations to assess their performance in specified areas and measure them against established standards and the performance achieved by other companies.
The Confederation of British Industries Contour Benchmarking Scheme has recently been produced which covers such elements as pollution, transport and waste production. Performance ranking facilitates comparison with external benchmarking standards.
Guidelines for environmental performance evaluation were produced in the form of ISO14031 in January 2000. This provides one alternative to developing a more formal EMS approach within any organisation and provides a list of useful environmental performance indicators.
Within local authorities, the current environmental agenda is based around the requirement to produce a Local Agenda 21 strategy with a range of environmental work taking place. Local authorities are adding value to government campaigns, such as the "Are you doing your bit"? campaign to promote sustainable development. TravelWise projects and Safer Route’s to School initiatives aim to promote safe, healthy and sustainable travel, especially to school. The Landfill Tax introduced financial incentives to reduce the volume of waste being added to landfill. Many local authorities are promoting waste minimisation, recycling and waste management. Greener purchasing initiatives are being introduced into local authority procurement policies.
At the national level a range of action is taking place. In November 1997, the Environmental Audit Committee was established to consider what extent the policies and programmes of government departments could contribute to environmental protection and sustainable development. A number of Government Departments have implemented EMS as part of the agenda.
Within the private sector, the impending climate change levy will be a key environmental issue to be considered. Increased waste legislation, including Special Waste, remains high on the agenda of many companies. Supply chain pressures are playing an increasing role in requiring the consideration of environmental issues. The transport agenda and its implications for climate change look certain to be high profile issues for the short term.
Some organisations have established direct links between environmental management systems and those operating for quality and safety. Integrated management systems offer one direction. Incorporating environmental issues within existing models such as the Business Excellence Model provide an alternative option.
The future direction for environmental management is inherently linked to the issue of sustainable development. The integration of environmental, social and economic issues is the current challenge for both public and private sectors. The Best Value reviews required in local authorities will be inspected for integrating sustainability issues. The first tranche of private sector Sustainability Reports are now being produced with a Global Reporting Standard on Sustainability available. The DTI have initiated work on a new "sustainability management" standard which aims to develop a sustainability management framework and tool kit.
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