Environmental Management System

Dr. Ah-Lian KorLeeds Beckett University

A.Kor@leedsbeckett.ac.uk

Outline

• What is an EMS?• Types of EMS• Benefits of an EMS• EMS Methodology• EMS Tools

Announcement

• 140 characters for the BCS Competition. • Vision for green IT 2024• Send to Professor Colin Pattinson• C.Pattinson@leedsbeckett.ac.uk

What is an EMS?

• DefinitionEPA (Environmental Protection Agency)An Environmental Management System (EMS) is a set of processes and practices that enable an organization to reduce its environmental impacts and increase its operating efficiency.

It is a framework that helps a company achieve its environmental goals through consistent control of its operations. It assesses your business' strengths and weaknesses, helps you identify and manage significant environmental impacts, saves you money by increasing efficiency, ensures you comply with environmental legislation and provides benchmarks for improvements.

Elements in an EMS (EPA)

Basic Elements of an EMS:• Reviewing the company's environmental goals • Analyzing its environmental impacts and legal requirements • Setting environmental objectives and targets to reduce

environmental impacts and comply with legal requirements • Establishing programs to meet these objectives and targets • Monitoring and measuring progress in achieving the

objectives • Ensuring employees' environmental awareness and

competence • Reviewing progress of the EMS and making improvements

Types of EMSYou can prove to customers that you are committed to meeting your environmental responsibilities by getting your EMS certified, such as through ISO 14001 (Criteria for EMS standards http://www.iso14000-iso14001-environmental-management.com/ ),

BS 8555 (British Standard for EMS http://ems.iema.net/acorn_scheme/bs8555) ,

Green Dragon (EMS for Wales http://www.wales.groundwork.org.uk/what-we-do/green-dragon-ems.aspx ) or

Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS, Europe http://ec.europa.eu/environment/emas/ )

Costs and Benefits of EMS (EPA)Potential Costs

InternalStaff (manager) time Other employee time (Note: Internal labour costs represent the bulk of the EMS resources expended by most organizations)

ExternalPotential consulting assistance Outside training of personnel

Potential BenefitsImproved environmental performance Enhanced compliance Pollution prevention Reduced environmental impactResource conservation due to reduced wastageNew customers/markets Branding and marketingIncreased efficiency/reduced costs Enhanced employee morale Enhanced image with public, regulators, lenders, investors Employee awareness of environmental issues and responsibilities

MethodologyPlan, Do, Check, Act model introduced by Shewart and Deming

ISO 14001

Sets objectives and targets -> implementation -> evaluate -> review -> corrective action

EPA http://www.epa.gov/ems/EMSguide2nded.pdf

Stages

• Stage 1: Commitment and Policy– Make environment the top organizational priority– Makes a commitment and communicate to the staff– Develop related policies– Integrate environment throughout the entire organization

(product, services, delivery, processes, operations, etc…)– Organizational culture

• Stage 2: Planning– Identifies environmental impacts of operations– Prioritization– Scoping

– Set overall environmental goal– Set objectives– Prepare action plan

– Resources (finance, tools, equipment, manpower, etc…)– Training– Schedule– Action (clearly defined steps to meet the targets)

EPA http://www.epa.gov/ems/EMSguide2nded.pdf

• Stage 3: Implementation– Follow through with the action plan– Project management – monitor and control

progress– Documentation and reports– Formative evaluation– Staff – training, awareness, commitment, and

involvement

• Stage 4: Evaluation– Evaluate results against set objectives– Evaluate the processes

• Stage 4: Review– Review the entire project lifecycle (policy, planning, implementation, etc…)– Corrective actions? Best practice

Continuous improvement should be the focus.

Groundwork for EMS by EPA http://www.epa.gov/ems/EMSguide2nded.pdf

Step 1

• Define Organisation’s Goals for EMS

Step 2

• Secure Top Management Commitment

Step 3

• Select EMS Champion

Step 4

• Build implementation Team

Step 5

• Hold kick off meeting

Step 6

• Conduct preliminary review

Step 7

• Prepare budget and schedule

Step 8

• Secure resources, assistance

Step 9

• Involve employees

Step

10

• Monitor and communicate progress

Environmental Policy

Commitments to Compliance with Legal Requirements and Pollution Prevention

(The Pollution Prevention Act of 1990)

• Source reduction – pollution should be prevented or reduced at its source

• Recycling – pollution that cannot be prevented should be recycled in an environmentally safe manner whenever feasible

• Treated – pollution that cannot be prevented or recycled should be treated in an environmentally safe manner whenever feasible

• Disposal or release into the environment should be employed only as a last resort and should be conducted in an environmentally safe manner

Identify Environmental Aspects and Impacts

Comparing Objectives and Targets - Some Examples

Objectives Targets

Reduce energy usage

Reduce usage of hazardous chemicals

Improve employee awareness ofenvironmental issues

Improve compliance with wastewaterdischarge permit limits

• Reduce electricity use by 10% in 2001• Reduce natural gas use by 15% in 2001

• Eliminate use of CFCs by 2002• Reduce use of high-VOC (Volatile organic compound) paints by 25%

• Hold monthly awareness training courses• Train 100% of employees by end of year

• Zero permit limit violations by the end of 2001

Legal and Other RequirementsSummary of Legislations in the EU

http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/environment/index_en.htm

Objectives and Targets

Environment Management programEnvironmental management program should define:• the responsibilities for

achieving goals (who will do it?)• the means for achieving goals

(how will they do it?)• the time frame for achieving

those goals (when?)

Requirements

• Structure and responsibility• Training awareness and competency• Communications

Effective communication

Effective communications will help you:• motivate your workforce;• ain acceptance for your plans and efforts;• explain your environmental policy and EMS and how• they relate to the overall organizational vision;• ensure understanding of roles and expectations;• demonstrate management commitment;• monitor and evaluate performance; and,• identify potential system improvements.

EMS Documentation

Types of control

• Document control• Operations and activities controls

Emergency Preparedness and response

• What type of emergency and appropriate responses?

Monitoring and measuring

• What to monitor and measure?• Why?

Non-conformance and Corrective / Preventive Action

• problems (including nonconformities) are identified and investigated;

• root causes are identified;• corrective and preventive actions are

identified and implemented; and,• actions are tracked and their effectiveness is

verified.

RecordsEvidence that the EMS is working as intendedTypes of Records You Might Maintain (Examples):• legal, regulatory and other code requirements• results of environmental aspects identification• reports of progress towards meeting objectives and• targets• permits, licenses and other approvals• job descriptions and performance evaluations• training records• EMS audit and regulatory compliance audit reports• reports of identified nonconformities, corrective action plans and corrective action

tracking data• hazardous material spill / other incident reports• communications with customers, suppliers, contractors and other external parties• results of management reviews• sampling and monitoring data• maintenance records• equipment calibration records

EMS AuditingObjective evidence of conformance with EMS requirements for continual

improvement

For your EMS audit program to be effective, you should:• develop audit procedures and protocols;• determine an appropriate audit frequency;• select and train your auditors; and,• Maintain audit records.

Management ReviewClosing the continual improvement loop

• What type of questions will be asked here?

Management Review: Questions to Ponder• Did we achieve our objectives and targets? If not, why not? Should we modify our

objectives?• Is our environmental policy still relevant to what we do?• Are roles and responsibilities clear, do they make sense and are they

communicated effectively?• Are we applying resources appropriately?• Are our procedures clear and adequate? Do we need other controls? Should we

eliminate some of them?• Are we fixing problems when we find them?• Are we monitoring our EMS (e.g., via system audits)?• What do the results of those audits tell us?• What effects have changes in materials, products, or services had on our EMS and

its effectiveness?• Do changes in laws or regulations require us to change some of our approaches?• What other changes are coming in the near term?• What impacts (if any) will these have on our EMS?• What stakeholder concerns have been raised since our last review? How are

concerns being addressed?• Is there a better way? What can we do to improve?

Toolkit

• http://www.epa.gov/ems/EMSguide2nded.pdf