Environmental Management Systems Development and Auditing
Are you confused about how to get started with managing new national approaches to the environmental impacts associated with doing business?
Environmental compliance, auditing and reporting has become an increasing component of management for industry, commerce and organisations across Australia. If undertaken effectively this can add value by enabling a business to understand, manage and control environmental risk.
Delta can work closely with your organisation in developing a competitive advantage by minimizing your tangible environmental impact while maintaining a focus on the organisation's priority to remain financially viable.
We do this through:
- Creating Environmental Management Systems to assist an organisation meet its commitments and targets
- Providing Environmental Auditing Services to guide an organisation when dealing with legislative requirements
Environmental Management System (EMS)
An environmental management system (EMS), developed and implemented by Delta, will offer your organisation a mechanism for compliance monitoring, and provide direction for tracking performance and structuring environmental management programs that maintain and improve environmental and bottom line performance.
Services Delta can provide to your organisation include:
- Environmental Systems reviews and gap analysis giving a snapshot of current compliance
- Environmental risk assessments Environmental management systems, manuals, policies and procedures to address identified OHS deficiencies
- Environmental Management Systems training to ensure that the organisation understand and apply risk management strategies
- Placement of outsourced Environmental consultants within your company (full time/ part time) to provide ongoing support
With recognized expertise in the field of Environmental Management and Auditing, Delta promotes continual improvement in an organisations performance with a focus on significant organizational and environmental priorities.
Our philosophy is to strategically review an organisation's environmental management objectives and targets with the intent to identify the key required or legislated elements and opportunities for improvement. We prioritize actions required to move your organisation forward and enhance the cycle of continual improvement.
Delta's Environmental Auditing Services can deliver:
- The current status of your implemented Environmental Management System Environmental Management System gap analysis and opportunities for improvement ISO14001:2004 compliance
- Practical recommendations and prioritization of Environmental Management Programs ISO14001:2004 provides our most significant foundation for structuring and auditing an Environmental Management System.
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What is an Environmental Management System?
An Environment Management System (EMS) is a tool for managing the impacts of an organisation's activities on the environment. It provides a structured approach to planning and implementing environment protection measures.
Like a financial management system monitors expenditure and income and enables regular checks of a company's financial performance, an EMS monitors environmental performance. An EMS integrates environmental management into a company's daily operations, long term planning and other quality management systems.
Components of an EMS
To develop an EMS, an organisation has to assess its environmental impacts, set targets to reduce these impacts, and plan how to achieve the targets.
The most important component of an EMS is organisational commitment. For an effective EMS to be developed and implemented, you need commitment from the very top of the organisation, as well as all staff. Further examples of components that should be considered when developing an EMS are:
Environmental Policy: this is a statement of what an organisation intends to achieve from an EMS. It ensures all environmental activities are consistent with the organisation's objectives.
Environmental Impact Identification: identification and documentation of the actual and potential environmental impacts of an organisation's operations need to be undertaken. This can be achieved through undertaking an environmental audit.
Objectives and Targets: an environmental audit forms the basis of determining an organisation's environmental objectives and targets. An organisation can find benefits in adopting more stringent longer term objectives to encourage it to improve its performance. To continually improve, targets should be regularly reviewed.
Consultation: staff and community consultation should be undertaken before, during and after establishment of an EMS. This is necessary to ensure that all staff are involved in, and committed to the EMS. It can also help to improve public perception of the company, one of the benefits of implementing an EMS.
Operational and Emergency Procedures: all procedures should be reviewed to ensure they are compatible with the organisation's environmental objectives and targets. Any changes should be included with the documentation.
Environmental Management Plan: this details the methods and procedures which an organisation will use to meet its objectives and targets.
Documentation: all objectives, targets, policies, responsibilities and procedures should be documented along with information on environmental performance. Documentation is useful for verifying environmental performance to staff, regulators and the community.
Responsibilities and Reporting Structure: responsibilities need to be allocated to staff and management to ensure the EMS is implemented effectively.
Training: staff should undergo environmental awareness training to familiarise them with their responsibilities for implementing the EMS and with the overall environmental policy and objectives of the organisation. This provides staff with the necessary skill and motivation for the effective implementation of the EMS.
Review Audits and Monitoring Compliance: review audits should be undertaken regularly to ensure the EMS is achieving its objectives and to refine operational procedures to meet this goal. In order to ensure regulatory and other requirements are being met, it is often necessary to undertake regular environmental monitoring.
Continual Improvement: an important component is continual improvement. An EMS comes into its best use when used to review progress towards the targets and objectives set by a company to protect the environment. The procedures set in place to meet these objectives should be constantly examined to see if they can be improved or if more effective systems can be introduced.
Benefits of an EMS
An EMS can assist a company in the following ways:
Minimise environmental liabilities Maximize the efficient use of resources
Reduce waste Demonstrate a good corporate image
Build awareness of environmental concern among employees
Gain a better understanding of the environmental impacts of business activities and increase profit, improving environmental performance, through more efficient operations.
An EMS can be a powerful tool for organisations to both improve their environmental performance, and enhance their business efficiency. An EMS is not prescriptive, rather it requires organisations to take an active role in examining their practices, and then determining how their impacts should best be managed. This approach encourages creative and relevant solutions from the organisation itself.
Although the implementation of an EMS is essentially a voluntary initiative, it can also become an effective tool for governments to protect the environment as it can assist regulation. For example, regulatory systems can encourage organisations to use EMS to meet standards, by providing incentives for strong environmental performance.
Likewise, organisations can use EMS to ensure that their performance is within regulatory requirements, and to keep ahead of more stringent regulations which might be introduced in the future.
International Environmental Standards - ISO 14000
The ISO 14000 series, currently being developed by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), is a collection of voluntary standards that assists organisations to achieve environmental and financial gains through the implementation of effective environmental management. The standards provide both a model for streamlining environmental management, and guidelines to ensure environmental issues are considered within decision making practices.
ISO 14001 is the standard for Environment Management Systems. Many large businesses, particularly overseas, have obtained certification under the standard.
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