Fundamentals of Environmental Management SystemsThe Coordinator of the Master in Sustainable Environmental Management at Bureau Veritas University Center , Noelia Sánchez, talks to us in this post about Environmental Management Systems.
The perspective of sustainable development has given rise to a close relationship between the environment and the company , which has caused the latter to undergo significant changes in its approach to matters relating to the environment, to the point of considering the minimization of its deterioration compatible with the continuous evolution of organizations.
In the late 1970s, in the United States, due to the increase in both the number and complexity of environmental regulations developed by the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the significant financial penalties imposed for non-compliance, organizations began to worry about their impact on the environment. This prompted companies to conduct audits of legal compliance in environmental matters to verify their performance with environmental standards and identify the points or processes in which they were not complying with the legislation.
The initial objective of this process was to inform the cryptocurrency data company's management about the environmental situation of the manufacturing plants in order to be able to make informed decisions. This audit was carried out internally and for the company's own purposes only, and became a periodic requirement for its performance to be carried out by companies not linked to the audited activity. The development of this initial concept was used by American companies as a driving force to implement an environmental management tool in order to control the environmental aspects associated with their activity .
Legal obligations , together with the growing social interest in the Environment , have been the elements that have encouraged companies in the United States and Europe to introduce environmental audits and subsequently decide to implement Environmental Management Systems (EMS), channeled in a similar way to Quality, using Management Systems as a tool, establishing a structured work method that is integrated into the company's management.
Achieving sustainable business development is a major challenge , but it provides an opportunity to improve both productivity and image .
Today, it is considered that only those industries that meet the highest environmental quality requirements will survive over time .
An Environmental Management System can be defined as the part of an Organization's Management System used to develop and implement its environmental policy and manage its environmental aspects , that is, those elements of the activities, products or services that can interact with the Environment.
These include residual emissions, whether gaseous, solid, liquid or in the form of waves such as noise; the consumption of raw materials and natural resources, etc.
Therefore, according to its definition, an Environmental Management System allows an organization to achieve and maintain operating conditions in accordance with the principles of environmental protection and improvement objectives that the organization itself has set, and to provide an effective response to changes in legal, social, financial and competitive provisions, as well as to environmental risks.
The EMS is the tool to anticipate, identify and manage your interactions with the Environment , ensuring that your operations are carried out in a manner consistent with applicable legislation and other requirements that the organization voluntarily subscribes to, as well as with the environmental policy that the organization has defined.
The EMS is not an end in itself, it is a prevention tool that should help reduce harmful environmental impacts caused by activities, products and services, rather than correct them once they have occurred. Procedures should be chosen that achieve preventive protection of the environment, as well as greater performance of the activity and increased competitiveness.
A company may choose to simply comply with legal requirements or give the environment the same importance as other factors or areas that make up the company, and integrate the environmental variable into all business decision-making mechanisms. Compliance with legal requirements should be taken as the zero level from which to establish a commitment to continuous improvement , which includes all aspects that have an impact on environmental protection.