Establishing an environmental management system

The requirements of environmental management systems are to establish and then maintain arrangements that cover all the relevant environmental issues, set in place suitable measures to control them, and get them verified by an external competent body. Six aspects to be covered in establishing an environmental management system are considered below. 

1 Environmental aspects and impacts affected by the activities, products or services of fhe organisation need to be identified. The term environmental aspect means understanding what environmental media (or aspect ) can be affected. 

Indirect environmental aspects can also arise. These refer to those which management may not have total control over and may include the choice of freight routes that are more circuitous to avoid troubled regions of the world. Another example arises from the choice of contractors or suppliers and, in turn, their subcontractors. The environmental practices they follow become more difficult to monitor and influence as the chain extends. 

Aspect Material, quantity and source Potential consequence Hazard or severity ranking Control ranking Relative impact ranking 

Air emission 1. Low amounts of CO2 from boiler Global warming 2 1 2 

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ISO 14000 / ISO 9000 Standards published by the International Organization for Standardization. ISO 14000 standards are for companies establishing an environmental management system. ISO 9000 standards are for companies establishing a quality management system. 

BAT is to implement and adhere to an Environmental Management System (EMS) that incorporates, as appropriate to individual circumstances, features concerning e.g. the commitment of top management, planning, establishing and implementing procedures, performance checking with corrective actions and reviews. 

The company in question establishes and implements an environmental policy, site-specific environmental programmes and an environmental management system, carries out periodic site-specific environmental audits and prepares communication on environmental performance to certifiers, governments and the public. 

No matter what the organization is or does, if it wants to establish a quality management system and an environmental management system (EMS), then both systems have a number of essential features which are spelled out in ISO 9000 and ISO 14000. 

ISO 14001 2004 is applicable to any organization that wishes to establish, implement, maintain and improve an environmental management system, to assure itself of conformity with its stated environmental policy, and to demonstrate conformity with ISO 14001 2004 by... 

Even though the focus of ISO 14 001 is on the establishment of an EMS and not specific performance levels, the outcome of having a strong EMS is improved environmental performance. Further information on ISO 9000 and 14 000 management systems can be obtained via the ISO website [B-27]. 

A management system that provides for the systematic implementation of environmental policy. Can be structured in accordance with an EMAS and/or ISO 14001. The provision of a framework for guiding an organisation to achieve and sustain environmental performance in accordance with established goals and objectives. The overall aim is a continuous improvement in environmental performance. 

In the environmental field, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established its Incentives for Self-Policing Discovery, Disclosure, Correction and Prevention of Violations (Audit Policy). It permits complete mitigation of civil penalties if the violator complies with aU of its requirements, one of which is discovery of the violation through either an audit or application of a compliance management system. 

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