WHAT IS ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT?

Environmental management may be simply defined as the impact of an organization management on the environment. Although its meaning seems straightforward but people have different views of what the environment is which lead to confusion and dispute. Consequently, environmental management may has different meanings to different people and thus an essential prerequisite to understanding environmental management would be the understanding of what the environment is.

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (EMS)

An Environmental Management System is the system by which a company controls the activities, products and processes that cause, or could cause impacts on the environment and through it the environmental impacts of the operations will be minimized. It is based on the management of "cause and effect", where the company's activities, products and processes are the causes or 'aspects' and their resulting effects, or potential effects, on the environmental are the 'impacts'.

Impacts are things like:

• a change in the mean temperature of a stream receiving effluent,
  
  
• an increase in the rate of asthma sufferers in the local population as a result of flue gas emissions, or contaminated land as a result of landfill leachate.

Aspects would be the things within the company's control that cause directly or indirectly, those impacts.

EMS can be formal and standardized such as ISO 14001 and Pollution Prevention, etc.

Environmental Management and its desired result-improved environmental performance- is the process of minimizing the environmental impacts of the company by controlling the aspects of the operations that cause, or could cause, impacts to that environment.

Improved environmental performance, like improved financial or quality performance, is a result by design, not by chance. Like all management systems, an EMS organizes resources to achieve certain objectives by establishing the procedures and infrastructures that, if followed and maintained, will yield a desired result. Its resources, objectives procedures and infrastructures simply focus on improved environmental performance by controlling and minimizing the environmental impact of the company or the establishment.

Environmental management is not a ' hit and miss ' approach to reach a green company. It is not also a replacing of all machines, products and processes that have caused an impact on the environment. Actually it is the relentless pursuit of gradual and unending improvement; only in this case it is a documented and planned process to improve environmental performance.