Environmental management tools

The best environmental performance is usually achieved by the installation of the best technology and its operation in the most effective and efficient manner. This is recognised by the IPPC Directive definition of techniques as both the technology used and the way in which the installation is designed, built, maintained, operated and decommissioned . 

Within the European Union, many organisations have decided on a voluntary basis to implement environmental management systems based on EN ISO 14001 1996 or the EU Eco-management and audit scheme EMAS. EMAS includes the management system requirements of EN ISO 14001, but places additional emphasis on legal compliance, environmental performance and employee involvement it also requires external verification of the management system and validation of a public environmental statement (in EN ISO 14001 self-declaration is an alternative to external verification). There are also many organisations that have decided to put in place non-standardised EMSs. 

While both standardised systems (EN ISO 14001 1996 and EMAS) and non-standardised ( customised ) systems in principle take the organisation as the entity, this document takes a more narrow approach, not including all activities of the organisation e.g. with regard to their products and services, due to the fact that the regulated entity under the IPPC Directive is the installation (as defined in Article 2). 

An environmental management system (EMS) for an IPPC installation can contain the following components  

These features are explained in somewhat greater detail below. For detailed information on components (a) to (g), which are all included in EMAS, the reader is referred to the reference literature indicated below. 

Top management are responsible for defining an environmental policy for an installation and ensuring that it  

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Many organizations are now actively involved in ERA, developing methodologies and techniques to improve this environmental management tool. Such organisations include OECD, WHO and ECETOC. One of the major difficulties concerning the use of risk assessment is the availability of data and the data that are available are often loaded with uncertainty. 

Van Wormer, M.B. Use Air Quality Auditing as an Environmental Management Tool, Chem, Eng. Progress, 62 (November 1991). 

Environmental management tools that can be applied across different locations and times. 

In principle, EIA should lead to the abandonment of environmentally unacceptable actions and to the mitigation to the point of acceptability of the environmental effects of proposals which are approved. EIA is thus an anticipatory, participatory environmental management tool [... f. 

Environmental management tools Environmental management systems are a useful tool to aid the prevention of pollution from industrial activities in general. Their presentation is therefore a standard part of each BREF document. 

Life cycle assessment (LCA) - an environmental management tool for evaluating the environmental impacts of products and services from cradle to grave in their life cycles (Baumann and Cowell 1999)... 

One of new methods that are recently introduced as one of environmental management tools is MFCA. MFCA method focuses on cost of material losses and wastes. Reducing wastes can lead to resource consumption reduction followed by adverse effects on its management. In fact, reducing adverse environmental impact... 

The techniques to consider in the determination of BAT are grouped in a generic section and product specific sections for certain polymers. The former includes environmental management tools, equipment design and maintenance, monitoring and some generic techniques related to energy and end-of-pipe measures. 

Continue to conduct LCIs for m or products and use LCIs as an internal environmental management tool. 

Saponara, Anthony, and Randy A. Roig, Ph.D. ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems A Complete Implementation Guide. Vancouver ERM-West, Inc. and STP Specialty Technical Publishers Inc., 1998. - A very extensive, two-volume ISO 14001 implementation manual containing dozens of checklists, prototype charts, templates, document examples, and other tools. Uses Green Acres Hotel and Resort as a case illustration for presenting implementation principles, techniques, and tools. 

Shell, David J. A Green Plan for Industry 16 Steps to Environmental Excellence. Rockville, Md. Government Institutes, Inc., 1998. - Offers a 16-step process for developing a comprehensive environmental management plan. Written for environmental managers, this book also contains techniques and tools for implementing ISO 14001. 

PRIO is a web-based tool intended to be used to preventively reduce risks to human health and the environment from chemicals. The aim of PRIO is to facilitate in the assessment of health and environmental risks of chemicals so that people who work as environmental managers, purchasers and product developers can identify the need for risk reduction. To achieve this PRIO provides a guide for decision-making that can be used in setting risk reduction priorities. 

Development of new and existing Risk Assessment Tools (e.g., Natural Hazards Electronic Map and Assessment Tools Information System—NHEMATIS), Risk Management Tools inclusive of all stakeholders in the process (e.g., CAN/CSA Q850-97 for risk management in Canada, CAN/CSA-Z763-96 specifically for environmental concerns) Effective Risk Communication. 

Despite the fact that there exist some differences between both methodologies, the cooperation between the aforementioned tools seems to be advantageous to use in environmental management [7]. Moreover, there are also steps in LCIA that also exist in the risk assessment (i.e., exposure assessment). Therefore, models used in LCIA can be used also to assess human or environmental exposure to chemicals. For that reason LCIA models are also included in the review of models of risk assessment. 

Callahan, C.A. Earthworms as ecotoxicological assessment tools. In Earthworms in Waste and Environmental Management, Edwards, C.A., Neuhauhauser, E.F., Eds. SPB Academic The Hague, 1998 295-301. 

Specific tools and mechanisms are being used worldwide to meet the specified targets. They represent components of the international technical language referred to above (see slide 4). Depending on the particular application, some of these components e.g. standardization, quahty and environmental management, accreditation, are being used on a voluntary basis while others are implemented on a compul- ... 

Smit, M.G.D., Jak, R.G., Rye, H., Frost, T.K., Singsaas, 1. and Karman, C.C. (2008). Assessment of Environmental Risks from Toxic and Nontoxic Stressors A Proposed Concept for a Risk-Based Management Tool for Offshore Drilling Discharges. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management 4(2) 177-183. 

Bombardier, M. and Bermingham, N. (1999) The SED-TOX index Toxicity-directed management tool to assess and rank sediments based on their hazard - Concept and application, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 18, 685-698. 

Thomas, W.B. Methyl bromide Effective pest management tool and environmental threat. J Nematology 1996 28 286-289. 

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