Environment Management System
Tool to Enhance Competition

By Madhu Prasad Regmi

THE gradual deterioration of the environment has become a matter of serious concern in the present day world. The depletion of ozone layer, loss of bio-diversity, surface as well as ground water pollution, global warming and rise in sea level have serious impact upon human kind. Besides, indoor and outdoor air pollution, noise pollution, solid waste and sewerage also have localised effects. If the present situation of environmental degradation remains unchecked, the very sustainability of human life would be at stake.

Causes

One could say that such problems are the outcome of human activities. An unprecedented population growth has led to the use of natural resources beyond their regenerating capacity. The country’s drive towards industrial development and economic upliftment also has resulted in resource depletion. Excessive use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides in the name of increasing agricultural productivity has caused surface as well ground water pollution and contamination of foodstuffs. Too high energy consumption and clearing of rain forests have given rise to carbon dioxide emission in an unprecedented manner. Over-gazing and loss of forest for fodder, timber, fuel wood and other purposes have deteriorated the rural and urban environment. Even the in-house environment remains beyond satisfactory level causing several physical and mental problems. Low income countries produce more carbon dioxide which indicates that their energy use pattern is less efficient or they rely more heavily on carbon-based source of energy. It also indicates that the per capita use of carbon dioxide in the most populous countries in the world is likely to increase, which means that further deterioration of the global environment is around the corner, if mitigation measures are not adopted properly.

All these phenomena have urged us to think in a new way. Protection of environment has become a major agenda for all nations irrespective of their size, population and level of development. Unlike before, environment is not considered as free goods. It is the demand of the time that environmental aspects should be properly taken into consideration while formulating and implementing development policies, plans and programmes. There is a growing concern to achieve and demonstrate, by all kinds of organisations, environmental performances by controlling the impact of their activities, products or services on environment. Consequently, environmental management has been considered as an integral and inevitable part of the organisational system.

The growing concern about environment and competitive nature of global market have directed the products and services to be environmentally friendly. In other words, the products or services rendered by a certain organisation should prove themselves competitive not only on economic but also on environmental grounds. This has led towards the development of environment management system (EMS).

Environmental reviews or audits are some of the tools developed to assess the environmental performance of any organisations. But now-a-days these tools seems to be inadequate because they do not sufficiently provide an organisation with the assurance that its performance will continue to meet its policy and legal requirements.

Hence there is a need that any type of environmental performance of the organisation be conducted with a structured management system and integrated with overall management activity.

An EMs is an ecology-oriented and entrepreneur-designed instrument for effective and efficient management of an organistion. It is designed to enable all sizes and types of organisation to initiate, develop and run policies to improve their environmental performance . It is a self-regulatory and information based tool. It aims at recognising environment as an additional factor in industrial as well as business management. It is a process-oriented system, which follows the well-known PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) sequence of general management. It is a powerful tool, which helps to achieve business excellence in the present day global competitive market system. An EMS model recognises environmental policy, planning, implementation and operation, checking and action, management review of sub-systems, which are aimed at continual improvement of the system as a whole. It requires any organisation to have an environmental policy defined by the top management and communicated to all employees. Such a policy should be geared towards compliance with national environmental legislation and continual improvement of environmental performances. An EMS is such a system that deals not only with the customers’ needs but also addresses the needs of the broad range of interested parties and the evolving needs of the society for environmental protection. It also demands firm commitments from the top management regarding the compliance with law and continual improvement of environmental performance. The continuous dialogue with all stakeholders on the subjects, like policy and performances of the organisations, is also a must. In short, it tries to recognise environment as a public good and lays emphasis on its protection.

Entroducing EMS in an organisation can have several advantages. Although it is sometimes said that it will require some initial costs that would ultimately reduce competitive capacity in a global competitive market system at an initial stage, a well prepared implementation of an EMS would ensure an easy access to developed country markets. In the long run, an EMS is helpful to ensure financial benefits through waste minimisation, optimum use of raw materials and energy efficiency. An implementation of EMS helps to reduce the risk of illegal practices and consequential penalties. Since environmental legislation is increasing worldwide, a proactive approach towards its compliance is always expected. In a situation, where consumers are being more informed and increasingly aware of the issues such as environment and its protection, the reputation of an industry and business enterprise would be at risk because of its poor environmental performance. Only an EMS can enhance its credibility among the consumers. Good environmental performance can be a key factor in market profiling of an organisation and gives comparative advantage. Similarly, a good environmental record can improve corporate image and create better relations with its stakeholders. Far from being a constraint, an EMS can help companies to increase sales, reduce costs and obtain comparative benefits.

Thus, it has become increasingly important for any organisation to adopt EMS in an integrated manner. By doing so, an organisation can not only contribute towards the protection of the environment, but can secure more market opportunities in a very competitive global trading system.

Realising the growing necessity of adopting EMS within an organisation, the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) has developed a few standards in EMS series. Among them, EMS Specifications with Guidance for Use (ISO 14001) and EMS General Guidelines on Principles, Systems and Supporting Systems (ISO 14004) are prominent. We all know that ISO has developed a number of environmental standards under ISO 14000 series, which aim at improving environmental performance of an organisation. These standards are voluntary in nature and are subject to a third party certification, which may lead towards increased credibility of an organisation. Adopting an EMS by an organisation stipulates that it shall have an environmental policy defined by the top management and geared towards compliance with environmental legislation and continual improvement of environmental performance.

Integral

It is indeed a new start that EMS is recognised as an integral part of the centire management system within an organisation. The adoption of EMS in an organisation can provide confidence within the management and credibility among the stakeholders. It is imperative for an organisation that environmental concerns are taken into consideration in a systematic and integrated way, so as to ensure its competitiveness. EMS can be considered as a tool to increase business excellence through better environmental performance.