The Environmental Management System (EMS) is a standard system that businesses need to put in place to fulfill their environmental responsibilities. Just like they need to manage the quality, occupational health and safety, or information security issues, they also need to manage their environmental issues. An EMS helps them in managing that by promoting best practices. It also helps them meet the legal environmental obligations. However, to successfully establish the EMS, organisations need to be clear about the key aspects and impacts of the environmental management in their business. Effective planning after considering the current environmental concerns and management aspects in your business is necessary to build the right EMS. Hence, to develop the EMS you need to take into account both the environmental aspects and the compulsory legal requirements.
The first thing that you need for implementing an EMS is a well-planned and written environmental policy. The policy is a necessary aspect of the EMS because it indicates the direction or purpose of your organisation’s environmental management. It helps in laying down the objectives and specific targets for your environmental performance. Policy planning and formulation are also helpful to make employees and other stakeholders aware of the environmental objectives, management practices, and legal regulations which should be met by your organisation. To put it simply, the written policy works as a declarative statement in the organisation which brings uniformity in its environmental management approach.
When the policy is defined and members of your organisation are made aware of it, you should make way for implementing the EMS. For that, you should assign separate tasks of the implementation procedure to respective employees or teams. You may also need to conduct training programs for the employees to make them aware of the EMS operations. Apart from training, you should document the EMS procedures and individual roles of employees or teams. It is essential for ensuring the successful execution of the new procedures for environmental management.
You must monitor and periodically evaluate the EMS to gauge its efficiency in achieving the proposed objectives and targets. Evaluation by the experienced auditors ensures that the implemented EMS aligns well with your proposed policy. Internal audits help to objectively evaluate the EMS and find any weakness or nonconformity to the environmental legislation so that you can take corrective actions.
The EMS must be also subjected to the management review at planned intervals i.e., after 3 or 6 months. The senior managers of your organisation should review the EMS to identify whether any changes are necessary in the policy, targets, or objectives. If they seek changes, the administrators or operators of the EMS must make plans and initiate them. This eventually results in the improvement of the EMS as well as your business’s environmental performance in a continual cycle.
While these are the crucial aspects of environmental management organisations need to consider while establishing their EMS, let’s unveil how they will impact your business or rather your environmental performance.
Having a strong and comprehensive EMS firstly helps to minimise the environmental impacts and risks by introducing best practices. Secondly, it ensures that your business complies with important environmental legislations and hence, prevents from falling for any breaches, fines, or public prosecutions.
It also prepares your organisation for achieving the ISO 14001 standard which is the benchmark international standard for environmental management. Consequently, it will demonstrate your organisation’s environmental awareness in the industry. This gives your business a competitive advantage by building a positive image of your brand. Customers, distributors, suppliers, investors, etc. nowadays want to associate with a company that has a greener approach i.e., works for environmental protection and sustainability. Therefore, your business can get myriad opportunities of sales, investment, and expansion when it has an internationally recognised EMS.
The beneficial impact of the EMS is also observed in the business’s financial side. With an increased focus on controlling the environmental impacts, you need to use various effective measures to curb the amount of wastes generated by daily operations. You also promote practices for saving energy (electricity, water, fuel, etc.) and other natural resources by optimising their uses. All these save you money and in the long run, increase your profits or bottom line.
As the world is facing numerous challenges in the environmental sphere such as climate change, air quality deterioration, and resources exhaustion, it is high time for businesses to step forward and contribute to protecting the environment. Businesses are more responsible for environmental safety than anyone else. A robust EMS is the first thing they need to deliver their environmental responsibility. However, different businesses have different environmental consequences and so the EMS should be implemented depending on their set of challenges and environmental effects. Here we have mentioned the elementary aspects and impacts of environmental management in business which can help them implement their EMS in the correct way.
If you need any assistance in establishing your EMS, you can get in touch with our compliance experts at Compliancehelp. We have a team of experienced ISO consultants in Australia who can evaluate your organisation’s environmental goals and assist you in every way to implement an appropriate EMS.
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