Environmental Management Systems

Environmental Management Systems (EMS) provide a new world view for sustainability. An environmental management system is "that part of the organization's overall management system which includes corporation structure, planning activities, responsibilities, practices, procedures, processes, and resources for developing, implementing, achieving, reviewing, and maintaining an organization's environmental policy. The benefits of an EMS include:

• minimizing environmental risk liabilities;
• maximizing the efficient use of resources;
• reducing waste;
• demonstrating a good corporate image;
• building awareness of environmental concern among employees;
• gaining a better understanding of the environmental impacts of business activities; and
• increasing profit, while improving environmental performance, through more efficient operations.

In response to the complexity of environmental management and a growing demand for a systematic and comprehensive EMS procedure, the International Standards Organization (ISO) developed criteria in the early 1990s for environmental management systems. The ISO 9000/14000 series, of which ISO 14001 is the most recent (late 1996), are a set of completely voluntary standards and guideline reference documents which include environmental management systems, eco-labeling, environmental auditing, life cycle assessment, environmental performance evaluation, and environmental aspects in product standards. ISO 14001 is designed to provide customers with a reasonable assurance that the performance claims of a company are accurate. ISO 14001:

• increases environmental compliance;
• reduces costs and liabilities;
• reduces impact on the environment;
• offers a competitive advantage; and
• demonstrates that customers prefer certified suppliers.

Environmental management systems are gaining popularity around the world. They provide the structure for the integration of environmental issues into management and day-to-day operations. But they don't provide the vision that guides organizations and corporations on the path to sustainability. Nor do they provide the understanding of what constitutes a sustainable direction.

It is imperative to find ways of integrating these multiple dimensions in order to produce a sustainable framework for decision-making. For example, if an organization chooses to use the ISO 14001 guidelines in conjunction with a standard environmental management system that organization will focus upon how to best comply with existing environmental regulations. But what happens when regulations change, for example becoming more limiting and restrictive with regards to environmental impacts than the company planned on in its original EMS development to meet current ISO 14001 guidelines? In other words, industry keeps reacting to constantly changing environmental regulations rather than getting ahead of the game and moving toward sustainability.

A good example is the case of ozone-depleting chemicals. When chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were initially restricted by law, companies re-engineered their products and factories to accommodate hydrochloroflurocarbons (HCFCs) instead. These are problematic as well. Although they are less ozone-depleting than CFCs, they are persistent compounds, are greenhouse gases, and are toxic. HCFCs will eventually be phased out, necessitating companies to change course again. There is no doubt that benign substitutes can sometime be difficult to find. Nevertheless, there are many opportunities for companies to avoid these costly course corrections by thinking systematically about long-term sustainability.