Monitoring and measurement systems for implementing ISO 14001

There is a lot of work involved in establishing an effective and useful monitoring and measurement system, but it can be a critical tool for business success. With reliable data based on important performance metrics, you can quantify environmental and business improvement; communicate success; provide valuable input to environmental objectives, targets, and programs; and make sound business decisions based on facts. This article details how companies can set up procedures, processes, and schedules using ISO 14001 to monitor regulatory compliance and help establish an integrated management system.     

The business implications of implementing ISO 14000

The ISO 14000 standards for environmental management systems (EMS) are voluntary standards intended to aid companies that wish to improve their environmental performance. The standards owe their existence, at least in part, to three widely shared views: (1) that existing environmental management systems are either inadequate or ineffective; (2) that companies will want to improve environmental performance for economic or social reasons; and (3) that governments and stakeholders will require companies to exercise greater control of the impacts to the environment through new regulations. ISO 14000 offers a solution—an ?integrated”? EMS, with components designed to effect sound management in any size organization and in any country. The standards are an embodiment of both the policy and practice of environmental management. This article is a consideration of the business implications of the ISO 14000 series of standards. How will a movement toward an integrated EMS be realized? Who will be in the best position to respond? ISO 14000 is a management system, and it carries with it business consequences.     

Implementing design for environment at AT&T

The quality revolution is sweeping its way through most companies globally. It has focused on improving the quality of products and services delivered to the customers and on companies' internal processes. The success of these programs has led to the realization that the same principles need to be applied to the area of environmental management. AT&T has fully embraced TQM as witnessed by the many products and services that have received the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9000 certification and awards such as the Malcolm Baldrige Award and the Deming Prize for Quality. We have been utilizing the TQM methodologies for the past few years to turn our environmental focus from end-of-pipe waste management to proactive and preventive TQEM and have made significant progress in reducing our wastes, emissions, and impact on the environment. This article shows how TQEM is now driving Design For Environment (DFE) programs and procedures, recognizing that addressing environmental issues in the initial design process is the most cost-effective means for minimizing environmental impact.     

Corporate environmental excellence and stewardship: Five critical tasks of top management

One of the most important challenges facing business is shaping the role of senior management in corporate environmental performance. In some leading companies, the CEO or chairman takes the initiative to carefully define his or her role because of a strong personal commitment, a keen grasp of the business incentives, in response to past problems, or because of a combination of these. In other companies, even where corporate policies genuinely support and promote corporate environmental, health, and safety programs, there may still be inaction or reluctance on the part of top management to participate or get involved. This management posture may work for a few more years, but no longer than that—and could quickly become a major detriment to any company's ongoing market success or viability. This article will focus on a strategy for getting top management involved in your company's programs and, where they are already involved, for sharing some insights we have gained from our work with a number of companies where top management has taken a strong role in environmental issues and has established precedence for what can work well.     

Environmental management: What ISO 14000 brings to the table

The field of environmental management has evolved from its beginnings as a regulation-based, compliance-driven, “command and control” regime into a continuous improvement, voluntary, environmental stewardship process aspiring to protection levels beyond those required by regulations. This change in environmental management philosophies prevalent at many regulated corporations, both in the United States and abroad, has provided a fertile ground for the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in developing environmental management standards that address these corporate aspirations. This task has moved closer to fruition within the ISO through its Technical Committee (TC) 207 on Environmental Management. This article provides background on the environmental management system standards, ISO/TC 207's committees' organization, and influencing factors helping to shape these standards. Equally important, this article focuses on what the standards will mean to the regulated industries in the way business is conducted.     

Case studies of ISO 14001: A new business guide for global environmental protection

The intention of this article is to clarify the current status of ISO 14001, the internationally accepted voluntary environmental management system (EMS) standard, which is an effective means to generate continuous environmental performance improvement in an organization as well as significant financial benefits such as operational efficiency improvements (e.g., energy and water savings), reduction in environmental risks and liability expenses, protection of corporate asset value, and public image improvements. The number of “ISO 14001” companies in Europe and the Pacific Rim is steadily increasing with customer and governmental pressure as the driving forces. In the United States, ISO 14001 implementation has lagged behind due to the fact that, so far, the EPA has not supported ISO 14001 as being sufficient for guaranteeing a reliable environmental performance record. Most ISO 14001 certified companies in the United States have been driven by overseas demand, particularly in the microelectronics industry because customers in this industry, especially those in Europe, will simply not do business in the future with companies that are not registered to ISO 14001. It is expected that European demand will continue to push ISO 14001 certification in the United States. Six ISO 14001 case studies in the U.S. chemical, electronics, and plastics industries, along with EPA's attitude toward ISO 14001 are described in this article. The case studies contain the reasons, steps taken, costs, benefits, problems, and future trends of ISO 14001 implementation and certification.     

A study of compliance with environmental regulations of ISO 14001 certified companies in Korea

This article investigates the impact of ISO 14001 certification on the compliance with environmental regulations by Korean companies. The impact of ISO 14001 certification on the industry was studied through a questionnaire survey and the compliance of environmental regulations were investigated using government-released data. The motivation for an environment management system was a result of the current international situation and the need to maintain fair competition. ISO 14001 certification has been recognized as an essential strategy for industrial competition and to improve company/product recognition. The certified and non-certified companies' environmental regulation violation (ERV) rates were 3.5% and 11.6%, respectively, in 1997. In 1998, the ERV rate had an eight-time difference with 1.0% and 8.5% for certified and non-certified companies, respectively. Annual regulation violation rates were reduced from 3.5% in 1997 to 1.0% in 1998 with certified companies and from 11.6% in 1997 to 8.5% in 1998 with their non-certified counterparts, respectively. ISO 14001 certified companies showed more improvement than non-certified companies in regards to environmental performance.     

Voluntary environmental management system standards: Case studies in implementation

Many anticipate that over the next decade, voluntary environmental management system (EMS) standards will take on the same importance in the marketplace as the ISO 9000 quality standards; the draft international EMS standard (ISO 14001) is on pace to be completed by mid-1996. In the United States, despite rapidly growing interest in EMS standards, most companies and regulatory agencies are uncertain about their potential benefits and about the process of developing an EMS. Case studies of EMS implementation, particularly in small and medium-sized companies, are needed to demonstrate the process and identify areas in which further EMS guidance is needed for environmental managers. This article presents seven case studies of EMS implementation in small, medium-sized, and large companies. Each company is participating in an EPA-sponsored Demonstration Project in which a variety of organizations are piloting the implementation of EMS standards (the project is being coordinated by NSF International, a not-for-profit company specializing in environmental and public health standards and certification). The case studies, written by the companies themselves, share experiences of EMS assessment, planning, and implementation, and discuss challenges that are special to particular industries.     

Using ISO 14000 for improved organizational learning and environmental management

Since the adoption of ISO 14001, companies have examined the standard and considered certification. Although the framework is useful and enhancing environmental management systems is beneficial, the adoption of ISO 14001 alone will not provide maximum company benefits. Companies must strive for an improvement in environmental performance and financial performance that can be accomplished only through significant changes in corporate culture, structure, and systems. By developing core capabilities such as skills and knowledge, physical technical systems, managerial systems, and values and norms, companies can develop organizational learning to increase sustainable competitive advantage. This article examines how the ISO 14000 series of standards can be used to improve organizational learning and environmental management.     

Practices of energy use management and sustainable performance in Brazilian mineral industries

Energy is an essential asset for the existence of industrial activities, however, the absence of energy use management may lead to numerous environmental, economic, and social impacts. Thus, industries, which are major consumers of energy, play an essential role in seeking to preserve the energy system. This study aimed at analyzing the practices of energy use management and their relation to sustainable performance in the industries within the Brazilian mineral sector. The practices of energy use management were measured using the model proposed by Liu et al. (2012, Journal of Cleaner Production, 26, 79–89). After that, evidence of sustainable performance was identified based on performance indicators developed by the Global Reporting Initiative (2006, 2010, 2014). The study is characterized as quantitative, and it was conducted through a survey of industries linked to the Brazilian Mining Association. Through our results, we verified that the practices related to energy use management existent in the companies that we studied are subjected to periodic verification of the impacts caused by company activities on the environment, and that attention to energy use provides an incentive to daily practices of energy saving. On the other hand, the practices of energy use management are still little disseminated among these companies, as is certification to the International Organisation for Standardization's (ISO) Energy Management Systems framework, ISO 50001. In general, through the analyses that we performed, we can verify the existence of positive associations between the factors related to the practices of energy use management and to corporate sustainable performance.     

Evaluation of Environmental Aspects Significance in ISO 14001

The methodological framework set by standards ISO 14001 and ISO 14004 gives only general principles for environmental aspects assessment, which is regarded as one of the most critical stages of implementing environmental management system. In Estonia, about 100 organizations have been certified to the ISO 14001. Experience obtained from numerous companies has demonstrated that limited transparency and reproducibility of the assessment process serves as a common shortcoming. Despite rather complicated assessment schemes sometimes used, the evaluation procedures have been largely based on subjective judgments because of ill-defined and inadequate assessment criteria. A comparison with some similar studies in other countries indicates a general nature of observed inconsistencies. The diversity of approaches to the aspects’ assessment in concept literature and to the related problems has been discussed. The general structure of basic assessment criteria, compatible with environmental impact assessment and environmental risk analysis has also been outlined. Based on this general structure, the article presents a tiered approach to help organize the assessment in a more consistent manner.     

New field report shows ISO 14001 gaining momentum: Acceptance of environmental management system standard parallels ISO 9000

Many believe that someday ISO 14001 will be as common as ISO 9001. Whatever the case, companies are finding that ISO 14001 offers a very beneficial way to run an environmentally friendly, profitable business. In this new field report, the author shows how companies are focusing on opportunities to improve their EMSs and achieving financial and business goals with ISO 14001. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Environmental Impact and Sustainable Development: An Analysis in the Context of Standards ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and OHSAS 18001

In this study, we seek to verify the contributions made by three international standards to efforts by eight companies to reduce their environmental impacts and move toward sustainable development. The standards considered in this article are the International Organization for Standardization's (ISO) 9001 (quality), ISO 14001 (environmental management systems), and the Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) 18001. The eight companies analyzed for this study are located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. As part of this work, the authors generated a proposed sustainable positioning matrix and placed each company within one of four quadrants—economic approach, environmental approach, social approach, and sustainability approach—derived from the context of the Triple Bottom Line (Elkington, 2004 ).     

Long-time environmental leadership pays off in many ways at herman miller

HermanMiller, Inc. is recognized as one of the most environmentally responsive companies in the United States. It recently received the coveted President'S Environment and Conservation Challenge Award. Top management credits the company'S forty-year-old participatory management tradition as a key to its environmental success. This article shows how these “bottom-up” initiatives have created impressive “bottom-line” results.     

Implementing ISO 14000: Overcoming barriers to registration

The new environmental standard, ISO 14000, is due for issue in January 1996. The standard is designed to address environmental management systems, life-cycle assessments, and international labeling and auditing standards. A major issue facing ISO 14000 advocates is “How can proponents of ISO 14000 get their enterprise to implement it?” And once implementation is started, “What can be done to enhance its chances of success?” The answers to both of these questions may be discovered by examining the self-interest of the parties within the enterprise. These parties will rightly ask, “Why should I support ISO 14000 registration? What's in it for me?”. Today's business climate is more competitive than ever. This is particularly true in the international arena. As a result, the competition within an enterprise for funds (the budget process) is becoming tougher than ever. Management is not going to register under ISO 14000 because they are altruistic. Companies will decide to register only if it is in their own best interest. That means, only if the decision maker can defend the decision to critics. This article presents approaches to gain support within an organization for implementation of ISO 14000 and to improve the chances of success once implementation has begun.     

Aquatic biodiversity and the electric utility industry

/ Results from a 1995 survey of utility company biologists indicate that aquatic biodiversity is an emerging and poorly understood issue. As a result, there is some confusion about what aquatic biodiversity actually is, and how we can best conserve it. Only one fourth (24%) of the respondents said their company has a stated environmental policy that addresses biodiversity. Many respondents indicate that over the years they have not specifically managed for biodiversity, but have been doing that through their efforts to assure balanced indigenous populations. While regulations are still the major driver for biological work, an increasing number of companies are involved in voluntary partnerships in managing water resources. Of these voluntary partnerships, 70% have biodiversity as a goal. Biodiversity is becoming an increasingly common subject of study, and a vast majority (75%) of the respondents suggested it should be a goal for utility resource management. Conservation of aquatic biodiversity is a complex task, and to date most aquatic efforts have been directed toward fish and macroinvertebrates. Ecological research and technological development performed by the utility industry have resulted in a number of successful biopreservation and biorestoration success stories. A common theme to preserving or enhancing aquatic biodiversity is preserving aquatic habitat. Increasingly, ecosystem management is touted as the most likely approach to achieve success in preserving aquatic biodiversity. Several utilities are conducting progressive work in implementing ecosystem management. This paper presents the potential interactions between power plants and biodiversity, an overview of aquatic biodiversity preservation efforts within the electric utility industry, more detail on the results of the survey, and recent initiatives in ecosystem management.KEY WORDS: Biodiversity; Ecosystem management; Watershed management; Utilities; Aquatic; Adaptive management     

Demotivating factors affecting the implementation of ISO 14001:2015 in Malaysia

Industrialization has brought with it environmental problems and the consequences of pollution, which has been affecting the world for decades. Immediate action is required to raise industry's awareness of its social responsibilities toward the environment. However, experience shows that companies that have obtained International Organization of Standardization (ISO) 14001:2015 certifications in Malaysia occupy but a small niche among the country's businesses. The purpose of this study is to assess the list of barriers and challenges to implementing and obtaining certifications under the ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management System (EMS) by Malaysian firms. In addition, this study will rank these factors relative to their importance. This study is aimed at EMS experts at the Scientific and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (SIRIM QAS International Sdn. Bhd.). The study uses mathematical pairwise comparisons to generate the list of critical challenges and barriers. Therefore, the study is expected to raise environmental awareness among Malaysia's industries regarding the adoption of ISO 14001:2015 standards. Furthermore, the study provides a guideline for Malaysia's industries and policy‐makers to provide them with a better understanding of the barriers and challenges that companies face in implementing ISO 14001:2015 EMS, and at the same time, help them understand the need to eliminate the difficulties of standard implementation.     

Corporate Environmental Policy Statements in Mainland China: To What Extent Do They Conform to ISO 14000 Documentation?

For decades, industry has been the main source of pollution in China. Determined to make changes, the mainland Chinese authorities have decided to promote mechanisms that incorporate environmental concerns into the internal management of enterprises. This is manifested in the rapid adoption of the ISO14000 standards, including a significant increase in ISO14001 registrations in China. Thus, this study examined the environmental policy statements of 106 certified facilities in mainland China against a strict interpretation of the mandatory requirements of the ISO 14001:1996 standard and the nonmandatory ISO14004 requirements in order to shed some light on the implementation of environmental management systems in an emerging economic giant. It was decided to analyze the environmental policy statement because such a statement is a core element in the ISO system of environmental management of each facility and there are relatively clear and specific requirements on what an environmental policy statement shall include. An analysis of the contents of the environmental policy statements shows that conformance to the relevant requirements of both the mandatory ISO14001 standard and the nonmandatory ISO14004 standard is far from impressive and that the facilities in our sample seldom went beyond the minimum requirements. By using ISO14001 and ISO14004 conformance scores as the dependent variables, we found that conformity to ISO14001 and overall conformance to ISO14000 series can be explained to some extent by the degree of top management commitment, the experience with informal environmental management systems, and the form of ownership of the facilities.     

Leaders of the Pack: An analysis of the Canadian 'Sustainable Communities' 2000 municipal competition

The first annual Sustainable Community competition, co-sponsored by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and CH2M Hill in 2000, received 52 submissions from municipalities across Canada. These submissions were systematically analysed to identify common characteristics shared by competition entrants, including what differentiates competition participants from other Canadian municipalities, what kinds of sustainability projecs municipalities have been most likely to undertake and what motivating and success factors are most commonly cited. Urban municipalities were more likely than rural municipalities to undertake sustainability projects. Stakeholder involvement was found to be the most important factor in determining the success of a project. Many projects in the competition had not identified clear holistic visions and benchmarks, and these were noted as areas where improvement could be made. The impact of higher levels of government in setting benchmarks and providing support was also noteworthy.     

Implementing wildlife-management strategies into road infrastructure in southern Ontario: a critical success factors approach

Wildlife-road conflict has profound negative impacts on both wildlife populations and society. Despite a long-held understanding of this problem, in most regions the wildlife-management strategies (WMS) available to mitigate this conflict are still relatively underutilized. This study examines the implementation of these strategies into road infrastructure, using Southern Ontario as a case study, in order to develop an understanding of what leads to successful WMS implementation. The project management concept of critical success factors was applied and interviews with project decision-makers and key stakeholders were conducted. Nine factors were identified and a comparison between a ‘smooth’ and ‘rough’ project is used to illustrate the cumulative effects that these factors, and their interrelationships, have on project implementation success. Practitioners can use these findings to evaluate WMS projects based on likelihood of success and allocate resources accordingly, ultimately leading to increased chances of implementation and overall benefit to conservation and society.