Business environmental initiatives: Beyond waste reduction and recycling

Xerox was one of the first U.S. companies to discover that environmentally sound practices not only result in good community relations, but also often more than pay for themselves. This article presents ideas and guidelines companies can use in their waste reduction and recycling programs. Implementing a waste reduction and recycling program is an important step toward improved environmental performance. Given the numerous ways businesses affect the environment—through purchasing, manufacturing, and resource consumption—waste reduction and recycling are just two of many potential environmental measures. This article will highlight further initiatives your business can take toward sustainable development, defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.     

Measuring environmental success

Process improvement, environmental results, and customer satisfaction all can—and need to—be measured in order to achieve total quality environmental management. This article details why and how to take such measures, with examples of leading company practices.     

Preparing for ISO 14000: An assessment guide

With ISO 14000 expected to roll out in 1996, have you begun to evaluate how well your current environmental management policy, programs, procedures, and objectives conform to published national and evolving global Environmental Management System (EMS) standards?. The ISO expects to adopt a final standard by mid-1996 which specifies requirements for an EMS (e.g., ISO 14001). In addition, national EMS standards have already been developed and published by organizations such as The British Standards Institute and, in the United States, NSF International, for example, BS 7750 and NSF 110–1995, respectively. This article shows how managers can begin assessing their operations to prepare for these new standards and improve overall 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.     

Assessment of the critical factors in ımplementing ISO 14001:2015 environmental management systems for developing countries: A case study for Sri Lanka

ISO 14001:2015 is an international standard that specifies the requirements of environmental management systems (EMS). This study assessed the influence of top management commitment, applications of compliance and other requirements, operational control, monitoring and measurements, resource management and improvements as critical factors on successful implementation and the operation of the ISO 14001:2015, by considering organizations in Sri Lanka as a case study. A data collection was conducted via questionnaires and structured interviews from stakeholders who are directly responsible for the EMS such as environmental managers, quality mangers and general managers of the organizations, who are certified with ISO 14001:2015, and comparisons were undertaken. The statistical analysis of the critical factors has shown a significant positive effect on both large‐scale organizations and export‐oriented organizations on EMS implementation. Furthermore, the results indicate that the EMS adoption has created significant positive impacts on efficient energy and resource consumption within organizations.     

3M international environmental management system

To meet the changing needs of 3M's expanding worldwide operations, its International Environmental Operations group is striving to enhance and integrate a global environmental management system. When well-designed, such systems not only can function to guarantee compliance with environmental regulations but also serve to help the company reap the benefits of going “beyond compliance.” They can also prepare facilities to meet the requirements of international standards, such as ISO 14000 or EMAS. An Environmental Management System (EMS) is a necessary step toward achieving sustainable development and gaining competitive advantage in the global marketplace. The challenge of constructing such a system can seem daunting to a multinational company confronted with the spectrum of regional environmental regulations/directives and its own diversity of business and social cultures. This article describes the development and implementation of the 3M International Environmental Operations global EMS initiative.     

A strategy for integrating NEPA with EMS and ISO 14000

It is vital that federal managers consider new approaches for enhancing environmental protection while reducing redundancies and cost. Faced with increasing environmental issues, compliance requirements, competing resources, and tightened budget constraints, agencies must seek innovative approaches for doing more with less. The diverse array of confusing and sometimes inappropriate or conflicting regulatory requirements compounds compliance complexities and increases the need to seek resourceful solutions. At a time when NEPA is coming under closer congressional scrutiny, an integrated NEPA/EMS paradigm provides a key for increasing the effectiveness and uniformity of implementing NEPA at the early planning stage, while reducing cost, delays, and redundancies. Effectively integrated, NEPA satisfies one of the five, and perhaps most important, principles of an EMS-environmental planning. NEPA's regulatory requirements not only are consistent with the objective of an EMS, but actually enhance the effectiveness of an EMS. An integrated approach provides the added benefit of increased environmental coordination and heightened communications that translates into further cost reduction and fewer delays. The strategy described in this article is designed to balance the rigors of an international standard with the need to efficiently implement an integrated NEPA/EMS system, given a diverse set of challenging circumstances and constraints.     

Environmental cost accounting: The bottom line for environmental quality management

Recent years have seen the environment emerge as one of the most pressing issues facing American business. Eventually, environmental costs will affect the bottom line of every American company. A recent study in the National Law Journal estimates that cleanup of the nation's known hazardous wastes sites will cost $752 billion over thirty years under current environmental policies. Environmental legislation and regulations impose annual compliance costs estimated by the Environmental Protection Agency at more than $30 billion. In the near future, environmental expenses for cleanup, regulatory compliance, and management are anticipated to grow to between 2.5 and 3 percent of GNP. Corporations that wish to be competitive must successfully manage these costs while maintaining or improving their role as responsible corporate citizens. Implementing a comprehensive system for identifying and managing environmental costs requires a multidisciplinary team effort. Environmental costs impact product selection, design and pricing, capital budgeting, and future strategic direction. In order to make informed and meaningful managerial decisions on environmental programs, real cost data are vital. An environmental management systems (EMS) requires information to set goals and then monitor progress towards those goals over time. This article will discuss the current cost accounting systems (CASs) available to support the myriad goals of environmental management systems. In addition, the article will outline a framework for plotting the location of your current EMS on a matrix of regulatory and information requirements and evaluating whether your corporation's CAS is adequate to support the goals and objectives set by your environmental management program. By anticipating future regulatory and information requirements, flexible systems can be developed to adapt to new and more stringent regulations and more complex information requirements.     

Public regulatory relief and the adoption of environmental management systems: a European survey

An increasing number of organizations across the world have adopted Environmental Management Systems (EMSs) based on certifiable standards, notably the European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) and the ISO 14001 standards. Although the specialized literature has studied the motivations, obstacles and benefits of the adoption of these standards for EMSs extensively, the impact of the public incentives on the adoption of such environmental management tools has been overlooked. In order to fill this gap in the literature, this article aims to shed light on the level of companies' knowledge and application of the main regulatory relief initiatives provided by public administrations around the EU for organizations with a certified EMS. For that purpose, this article summarizes the main findings of a survey carried out with the participation of 244 European EMAS-registered organizations. The findings of the survey highlight the fact that most of the surveyed companies have adopted or benefitted from some form of regulatory relief, mainly by making use of the measures granting an extended duration of some permits (44%), reductions in financial guarantees in the waste-treatment sector (31%) and tax reductions (26%). Moreover, it emerges that, among countries, the role of regulatory relief to support companies in the path to the adoption of EMSs is not univocal.     

Implementing an environmental business strategy: A step-by-step guide

With more and more organizations seeking opportunities to generate benefits beyond compliance from environmental management activities, the challenges for environmental directors today is to develop and implement an environmental strategy that links environmental performance with the overarching strategic business goals of the organization. Organizations today are looking for opportunities to develop environmental management solutions that not only address the concerns of regulatory stakeholders, but also provide opportunities to improve operating efficiency and financial performance, enhance customer satisfaction, sustain market growth, and enhance goodwill, to satisfy the demands of a broader set of stakeholder groups including customers, investors, and employees. To achieve broader benefits from environmental management investments, this article shows how organizations must first develop a methodology for aligning their environmental management activities with the organization's strategic business goals and create a plan for systematically managing continuous improvement to achieve these goals. The second challenge is to implement this strategy at the business unit and facility level in a manner which integrates environmental management activities with an organization's core business processes to achieve improved product and service performance.     

ISO 14001: A systems approach to managing environmental risk

The field of environmental risk management is relatively new and has developed rapidly over the past several years. There has been, however, a significant lack of integration of seemingly dissimilar disciplines into a meaningful context for top management risk decisions—until now. A new holistic approach, centered on the ISO 14001 standard for environmental management systems, addresses many of the issues that have kept environmental risk management focused on technical rather than strategic issues. This article describes the risk management process, illustrates how the ISO 14001 standard can be used by organizations to integrate and assess technical environmental information, and shows how to place this information in a strategic risk management context. It also explains how key ISO 14001 concepts such as policy implementation, operational control, and continuous improvement form the basis of a systems approach, and why the systems approach is the preferred, cost-effective structure for controlling environmental risk.     

Environmental marketing's new relationship with corporate environmental management

Issues of environmental marketing track back to issues of environmental management—i.e., to issues of overall corporate environmental commitment and responsibility. It is absolutely essential that a commitment to corporate environmental improvement be in place before an environmental marketing program is launched. Additionally, marketers can and should play a central role in the greening of the corporation. The marketer brings at least two important skills or strengths to the environmental improvement process—strengths of perspective and strengths of skill set.     

College and university environmental programs as a policy problem (part 2): strategies for improvement

Environmental studies and environmental sciences programs in American and Canadian colleges and universities seek to ameliorate environmental problems through empirical enquiry and analytic judgment. In a companion article (Part 1) we describe the environmental program movement (EPM) and discuss factors that have hindered its performance. Here, we complete our analysis by proposing strategies for improvement. We recommend that environmental programs re-organize around three principles. First, adopt as an overriding goal the concept of human dignity??defined as freedom and social justice in healthy, sustainable environments. This clear higher-order goal captures the human and environmental aspirations of the EPM and would provide a more coherent direction for the efforts of diverse participants. Second, employ an explicit, genuinely interdisciplinary analytical framework that facilitates the use of multiple methods to investigate and address environmental and social problems in context. Third, develop educational programs and applied experiences that provide students with the technical knowledge, powers of observation, critical thinking skills and management acumen required for them to become effective professionals and leaders. Organizing around these three principles would build unity in the EPM while at the same time capitalizing on the strengths of the many disciplines and diverse local conditions involved.     

Developing new environmental excellence programs: Lessons from epa's environmental leadership program

Interest in the concept—and implementation—of environmental excellence is at an all-time high. A wealth of examples from individual companies, trade associations, states, industry coalitions, and the federal government illustrate the growing acceptance by a wide range of stakeholders of a management systems approach to environmental issues. Perhaps nowhere is this more clear than in the collection of public comments submitted to EPA in response to its January 15, 1993, Federal Register notice, which proposed the creation of an Environmental Leadership Program (ELP). The authors, both of whom worked on the ELP, review these public comments and offer a set of “do's and don'ts” for organizations interested in establishing an environmental excellence program. In addition, the authors outline the Green Track proposal, a plan to structure an alternate regulatory pathway based on environmental excellence.     

The potential effect of ISO 14000 standards on environmental audit training in the United States

Training has been an important component of the environmental audit profession since its outset some 15–20 years ago. Training and education have taken on a variety of forms—from audit texts and articles, to formal courses, to videotapes, to on-the-job training programs. These efforts have helped to advance the sophistication of environmental auditing over the past few years. Now, with the advent of the international ISO 14012 Environmental Auditor Qualification Guidelines,¹ the auditing profession in the United States and around the world likely will be transformed in the near future. In fact, many organizations are now reengineering their programs in anticipation of the emerging Guidelines. The expected transformation holds for training and education programs as well. This article suggests some of the ways in which environmental audit training is likely to be reshaped as a result of ISO 14012. Offerors of training courses and seminars would be wise to anticipate the changes and modify their programs accordingly. A quick response could provide a competitive advantage. Moreover, corporate audit program managers should conduct critical evaluations of commercial offerings to assure that the programs' contents are consistent with ISO 14012 “auditor certification” expectations.     

The limitations of environmental management systems in Australian agriculture

The efficacy of government-supported programs to encourage improved management of land and water systems associated with agricultural land in Australia has been mixed. The broad approach of Australian governments is reviewed briefly. Evidence is presented from case assessments of a program to promote adoption of environmental management systems (EMSs) to improve environmental outcomes from agricultural practices. EMSs are systems implemented to manage the environmental impacts and ameliorate environmental risk associated with business activity. Data are presented on reported EMS activity and experience of four selected groups of farmers in Victoria, south-eastern Australia, representing broad-acre cropping, beef and dairy farming. The pro-environmental behaviours of farmers were mediated through voluntary adoption of government and industry sponsored EMSs, often with financial incentives and other support. Findings from the study were that adoption of EMS practices with sufficient public benefits is unlikely to occur at sufficient scale for significant environmental impact. Farmers more readily adopted practices which were financially beneficial than those which had a positive environmental impact. Although the focus on voluntary market-based instrument (MBI) type programs is popular in western countries, enforcing regulation is an important, but usually politically unpopular, component of land use policy. The comparative advantage of EMSs differed for the industries studied, but overall there were insufficient market drivers for widespread EMS adoption in Australia. Environmental outcomes could be more effectively achieved by directly funding land management practices which have highest public net benefits. Having a clear and unambiguous management objective for a particular land management policy is more likely to achieve outcomes than having multiple objectives as occurs in a number of international programs currently.     

Reducing life-cycle environmental impacts: An industry survey of emerging tools and programs

Corporate environmental practices have been evolving quite rapidly in recent years, as consumers express their preferences for environmentally friendly products and practices, as manufacturers look “upstream” and inquire into their suppliers' environmental practices due to liability and marketing concerns, and as company operating costs increase as a result of new environmental regulations. New corporate efforts are made to anticipate (rather than respond to) outside environmental pressures, to internalize costs, and to find strategic opportunities or competitive advantages based on company or product environmental performance. This article describes a survey and research project designed to explore one aspect of these evolving corporate practices—the use of analytical tools and associated programs, such as life-cycle assessment and design-for-environment—by companies to account for impacts throughout a product'S life-cycle.     

The impact of ISO 14001 on corporate environmental performance: a study of Swedish manufacturing firms

The debate concerning the environmental effectiveness of environmental management systems (EMS) based on ISO 14001 is still open and scholars have called for further studies that can explain the contrasting evidence in previous research. As a response, this study aims to contribute knowledge about the effects of ISO 14001-based EMS by presenting fact-based environmental data. The study focuses on changes in performance over a period of 12 years and includes both firms with an EMS (66 firms) and firms without one (50 firms). Consideration is given to the improvement efforts in the firms before EMS adoption making it possible to neutralize any selection effects where better environmental performance precedes ISO 14001 adoption. Analysis has been carried out using statistical methods for six different environmental areas. No statistically significant differences between certified and non-certified firms concerning the change in the rate of improvement could be found in any of the six areas. However, it can be suspected that EMS adoption has positive effects on energy use and waste production whereas the non-adopting firms seem to perform better concerning air emissions. These mixed results mirrors previous research, which is rather worrying considering the worldwide popularity of EMS based on ISO 14001 in industry.