Environmental management systems
Environmental management systems (EMS) provide businesses with
a structured means of managing all their environmental impacts.
An EMS can be the first step for a business to take towards environmental
improvement, as it enables organisations to benchmark their environmental
performance, and then regularly evaluate their performance and
improvement.
To develop an EMS, an organisation should assess its environmental
impacts, set targets to reduce these impacts, and plan how to
achieve the targets. A business should provide detailed information
on operational procedures as well as make provisions for auditing,
communication, training, review and emergency planning, and clear
designation of responsibilities for actions.
EMS certification
Businesses can apply for certification to international
standards such as ISO 14001. Visit the ISO
web site for more information about EMS ISO 14001.
The Small Business Environmental Management
Solutions booklet (265KB PDF), (or other
simple EMS workbook) is an alternative for small companies who
don't have the need or capability to pursue formal ISO 14001 accredited
EMS
Public environmental reporting
Public environmental reporting is the public disclosure of information
about a business' environmental performance including its impacts
on the environment, its performance in managing those impacts
and its contribution to ecologically sustainable development.
More than 50 companies, including BHP Billiton, Hydro Tasmania
and Telstra, have linked their environment reports to Environment
Australia's Public
Environmental Reporting web site. The site is a clearing-house
for electronically available reports and provides information
for organisations wanting to develop their own reports.
Triple bottom line
The 'triple bottom line' concept is based on the notion that
businesses report against their performance (or 'bottom lines')
on economic, environmental, and social outcomes. This information
can then be used to evaluate how well the business is moving towards
goals of ecologically sustainable development.
It is argued that for a business to be 'sustainable' it must
be financially secure, it must minimise its negative environmental
impacts, and it must conform with social expectations. More on
this topic can be found at the Sustainability
web site.
Corporate social responsibility sells
There is an understanding that more Australian firms need to
grasp the importance of being 'good corporate citizens' in influencing
consumer and investor behaviour.
According to Taking the first steps, a report conducted by the
State Chamber of Commerce (NSW), there is a growing gap between
what consumers expect of businesses in terms of social and environmental
responsibility and what businesses expect of themselves.
Life cycle assessment
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) measures the environmental impacts
of products or services relative to each other. Comparisons can
be made by assessing products in terms of the energy consumed
in the extraction of raw materials, transport, manufacture, distribution
and final disposal-the product's 'life cycle'. Additional calculations
including emissions to air, land or water resulting from creating
and disposing of the product or service are also included.
The EPA has been a partner in the LCA Australian Data Inventory
Project to develop baseline data for LCA in Australia. This project
has been guided by the Cooperative Research Centre for Waste Management
and Pollution Control at the University of NSW, and the Centre
for Design at RMIT.
For more information about the project and life cycle assessment
in Australia visit:
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This page was last modified 31-07-2007
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