Environmental Management Solutions

Posted by Daniel Stouffer on October 14th, 2009 filed in Global Warming

There was a time when environmental management was the domain of politicians, scientists and earth lovers, but is now something that has been adopted within industry and commerce on a widespread basis. Up until the latter third of the last century the concept had been largely ignored, but is now being recognized in no uncertain terms as we come to grips with the challenge facing us all.

For the longest time, big business decisions were based on how much better and how much bigger we could become and driven by consumption needs. Fossil fuels were seen as the best way forward to create energy for our burgeoning needs. Sustainability was far from people’s minds and our environment was constantly ravaged as we sought to go the extra mile.

Following the introduction of the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act in the late 1960s, environmental management solutions became more widespread. When the International Standardization Organization introduced its ISO 14001 standard, following closely on the heels of the European Eco-management and Audit Scheme, everything took off. Now a series of criteria had been laid down and it was the right thing to do for organizations to adopt the standards and for others to see that they were doing so.

There are a number of environmental management solutions, based on or complementing the ISO 14001 standard. For some organizations, full compliance with the main standard is too onerous and may be too challenging, and for certain upstart businesses and developing countries this could have adverse trading repercussions.

Environmental management solutions have been put forward by the United Nations based on a natural capital approach. This advocates using accounting reform and the adoption of the triple bottom-line philosophy, to take into account ecological and social performance in addition to traditional outputs.

There are a variety of environmental management solutions and some call for distinctions to be made rather than the adoption of standards. It is advocated that the process of auditory checks and enforced compliance is more onerous than a system that just advocates the difference between unsalable products, which are toxic and are distinct from consumable or durable products. In this way, such self-regulation would serve the environment.

An integrated management approach to the introduction of environmental management solutions is currently favored. All elements within an organization must be aware of their contribution to the life cycle of the business product and must be internally responsible for their impact environmentally. This is in particular focus as new legislation is discussed to reduce one of the greatest environmental hazards, emission of toxic greenhouse gases.

Environmental management solutions can form part of a wider goal to help ensure that an organization achieves sustainability. As particular focus is placed on reducing a carbon footprint, the organization must also ensure that it is environmentally efficient as a whole. Wastage at all levels will not be tolerated from a societal or economic point of view, with the twin threats of reputational harm and regulatory penalty ahead.