The History of Environmental Management Systems

Environmental management systems (EMS) help companies, organizations and governments manage their potential environmental impacts and ultimately reduce them. This can be limited to building operations or can include product lifecycles. If, for instance, you have five buildings in five locations, you would have five separate environmental management systems. Ideally there would be an overarching document which reviews all the EMS implementations and looks at the big picture. If, however, you had five buildings in one location as a campus you could use a single EMS. Implementing an EMS means reviewing it and making adjustments to improve and reduce your environmental impact. The implementation is actually cyclical: Phase 1 you plan by identifying what your operations are and how they impact the environment and then create an approach to reduce; Phase 2 you implement the methods to reduce the impact; Phase 3 you review the progress and Phase 4 you make any changes needed.

Before Standards

Environmental management systems have been around informally for many years. They were implemented specifically for complying with particular regulations rather than having an overall systematic approach. They would be reviewed when compliance was called into question or when the regulations changed.

British Standard 7750

The British Standards Institute's 7750 was created in 1992. It was amended in 1994. It served as the starting point for a standard on environmental management systems. Its basis was the Quality Systems Standard (ISO9000). BS7750 was developed to help address both immediate and potential environmental health concerns. Companies wishing to implement BS7750 must have an environmental policy first that outlines what environmental legislation and regulations the company must follow and provides a commitment to continuously improve. Companies then have an external audit to help them find ways to reduce their impact and ensure regulatory compliance. Once that is complete, the company determines its primary environmental goals. The standard has been updated to comply with the European Union's Eco-Management & Audit Scheme (EMAS) and ISO 14001.

International Standards Organization 14000 Series

The International Standards Organization set voluntary international standards in 1996 to help companies, organizations and governments measure and attain improvements on environmental performance, have a common approach to environmental management and reduce barriers to trade by allowing easier cross border compliance. The 14000 Series standards provide a Guide to Environmental Management Principles, Systems and Supporting Techniques; Environmental Management Systems--Specification with Guidance for Use; Guidelines for Environmental Auditing--General Principles of Environmental Auditing; Guidelines for Environmental Auditing--Audit Procedures-Part 1: Auditing of Environmental Management Systems; Guidelines for Environmental Auditing; Environmental Labeling; Guidelines on Environmental Performance Evaluation; Life Cycle Assessment General Principles and Practices and a Guide for the Inclusion of Environmental Aspects in Product Standards. Similar to BS 7500, ISO14001 requires an environmental policy to be in place before taking part in an ISO14001 Assessment.

European Union's Eco-Management and Audit Scheme

The European Union's Eco-Management and Audit Scheme is primarily a registration system. The EMAS Assessment requires that the environmental policy of an organization include quantifiable data on current emissions and environmental effects; waste generated; raw materials, energy, and water resources used and any other environmental aspect that may relate to operations.

US EPA Implementation

The United States Environmental Protection Agency leads the federal government's efforts to reduce its environmental impacts. Under the Clinton administration, the EPA established an environmental management system framework based on ISO 14000 & ISO 14001. The EPA did this based on Executive Order 13148, "Greening the Government through Leadership in Environmental Management," which mandated the establishment of a five year EMS implementation goal for all federal facilities. The directive was renewed and expanded under the Bush Administration in 2007.

References

• Environmental Protection Agency
• Quality UK
• Strategic Standards