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.     

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.     

Panarchy use in environmental science for risk and resilience planning

Environmental sciences have an important role in informing sustainable management of built environments by providing insights about the drivers and potentially negative impacts of global environmental change. Here, we discuss panarchy theory, a multi-scale hierarchical concept that accounts for the dynamism of complex socio-ecological systems, especially for those systems with strong cross-scale feedbacks. The idea of panarchy underlies much of system resilience, focusing on how systems respond to known and unknown threats. Panarchy theory can provide a framework for qualitative and quantitative research and application in the environmental sciences, which can in turn inform the ongoing efforts in socio-technical resilience thinking and adaptive and transformative approaches to management.     

Comparative risk analysis for metropolitan solid waste management systems

Conventional solid waste management planning usually focuses on economic optimization, in which the related environmental impacts or risks are rarely considered. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the methodology of how optimization concepts and techniques can be applied to structure and solve risk management problems such that the impacts of air pollution, leachate, traffic congestion, and noise increments can be regulated in the long-term planning of metropolitan solid waste management systems. Management alternatives are sequentially evaluated by adding several environmental risk control constraints stepwise in an attempt to improve the management strategies and reduce the risk impacts in the long run. Statistics associated with those risk control mechanisms are presented as well. Siting, routing, and financial decision making in such solid waste management systems can also be achieved with respect to various resource limitations and disposal requirements.     

企业环境管理制度优化及其信息系统框架设计研究

污染源大数据是环保大数据的重要组成部分,然而在以环境管理制度为基础的污染源数据管理过程中,一直存在制度衔接不流畅、数据不共享等诸多问题。本文调研考察了现有各项环境管理制度的衔接情况,提出以排污许可制度为核心,通过与其他环境管理制度有效衔接,实现环境管理的各个环节的有效覆盖。通过SWOT分析法对基于"一证式"改革的环境管理制度优化方案的可行性和必要性进行了深入分析,并以排污许可证为核心,设计企业环境管理信息系统框架。试生产与竣工环保验收实效不足,可转为企业自行备案;将环评审批结论纳入排污许可证,可大幅度减轻企业相关环境管理业务人员的负担。环境管理制度的优化必须建立在部门职能转变与整合之上;同时,还必须获得国家层面的立法与行政的支持;社会舆论的关注与支持也将推动环境管理制度优化的进程。以排污许可证管理为核心的信息系统框架可以有效实现污染源排放信息整合共享。     

Regional multiresource models in a national framework

The design and integration of models projecting the effects of management on environmental systems is one step in the environmental planning process. Interactions between resources produced on the same unit of land under current and future management can be examined only when assumptions and processes of these dynamic environmental systems are quantified. Multiresource interaction models have generally been large and cumbersome while also suffering from an inadequate amount of detail. This article presents a conceptual framework for integrating individual resource models to project multiresource interactions at a regional scale. Land management impact projections require common definitions of the total land base and common definitions of management activities applied to the same land unit. A case example focusing on the resources of timber, forage, wildlife, fish, and water for the southern United States is presented.     

生态环境重大工程项目全过程管理体系评价与对策

生态环境重大工程是实施国家中长期规划、具有中国特色的一项制度安排。本研究通过梳理我国重大生态环境工程项目管理现状,包括制度建设、工程标准体系建设、绩效管理体系建设等,结合“十四五”生态环境保护形势和任务要求,分析当前我国在生态环境工程项目管理体系建设上存在的主要问题。在此基础上,构建出我国重大生态环境项目组织管理的框架和路线图,提出“十四五”加强和提升我国重大生态环境保护项目全过程管理的对策与建议。     

Industrial estate planning and management in India--an integrated approach towards industrial ecology

Industrial estates (IE) are today perceived as an integral part of development strategies of many countries worldwide. The environmental impacts from a concentration of large number of industries in a small area or unplanned IE, can pose a serious threat to both local and global sustainable development initiatives. The formation of ecologically balanced industrial systems can result in numerous environmental and economic benefits. This paper examines the relevance of industrial symbiosis and carrying capacity concepts and proposes an integrated approach towards IE planning in India based on grouping combinations of industries based on carrying capacity, formation of green industrial townships, development of environmental impact assessment guidelines for IE and implementation of environmental management systems.     

Making sense of environmental accounting

Much as Total Quality Management (TQM) has helped companies decrease waste and enhance value, environmental accounting offers an approach and a suite of tools that can help organizations improve both environmental quality and bottom-line business performance. Its focus is to bridge the world of finance and economics with the world of environmental management. Companies in all sectors have discovered that they can increase profits by meeting and even surpassing environmental regulations. Through environmental accounting, companies can discover more of these opportunities and, ideally, bring environmental concerns earlier into planning, decision making, and operations. This article introduces environmental accounting and some basic principles that should guide organizations' thinking on environmental accounting and environmental accounting systems. It also describes several different objectives for environmental accounting that imply different requirements and orientations. Although the focus of this article is on environmental accounting as an aspect of forward-looking management and decision making in companies, much of the discussion applies to nonprofits and government units as well.     

Justifying the cost of EMIS: Piloting lessons from Rhone-Poulenc

Two worlds are colliding as many companies are integrating environmental management with business management. Nowhere is this more evident than in the hundreds of companies that are now working to upgrade their environmental management information systems (EMIS), which are a critical component of business integration. Building a business case for EMIS requires crossing many disciplinary boundaries—knowing the language of information systems, accounting, business management, and environmental management. Hence, it is a very valuable skill for environmental managers to develop in order to build their function and their own careers. Some environmental and information systems professionals are attempting to develop a general set of guidelines for justifying the cost of EMIS—in particular, the useful emerging work of the Environmental Health and Safety Software Development Group. This article relates the experience of an EMIS development effort at Rhone-Poulenc, Inc.     

Incentives to improve farm management: EMS, supply-chains and civil society

This paper focuses on impediments to environmentally sound management practices and how these might be overcome, with an emphasis on the role of environmental management systems, supply chains and civil society. It argues that: Farmers are under increased pressure to cut costs and improve production but with little opportunity to increase prices. Commonly short-term economic interest has damaging environmental implications. Current government policy, in Australia and in many other jurisdictions, relies heavily on voluntary arrangements, education and information, as the main policy instruments through which to persuade farmers to adopt better environmental farm management - e.g. the recent push to encourage the use of voluntary environmental management systems. However, there is good evidence to suggest that these can only make a valuable contribution when combined with a range of other policy instruments, including positive and negative incentives, intervention by third parties and in some cases, an underpinning of regulation. Arguably, what is needed is a strategy that builds on the strengths of voluntary environmental management arrangements while compensating for their weaknesses by combining them with other, complementary policy instruments. If so, we must engage with a range of questions that have not so far figured substantially in the policy debate. Although the principal focus has been on the role of government in bringing about on-farm change in management practices, supply chain pressure (at least in respect of agricultural chemicals and practices which threaten food safety) and civil society action are also potentially powerful mechanisms for bringing about change. Government can and should play a role in harnessing such forces in the interests of improved environmental on-farm practices.     

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.     

中日农村环境管理对比及对中国的启示

日本与我国在历史上同属传统的东亚小农经济国家,在社会、经济、文化等方面的发展历程和存在的问题具有共通性。日本的农村生态环境管理随社会经济发展不断调整适应,政府也数次推动乡村振兴。对比研究中日两国农村环境管理及其背后的社会经济因素,虽然两国在农村环境管理上有相似性,但也有较大不同,我国不能完全照搬日本的农村环境管理体制机制,必须走一条适应我国国情的特色道路,循序渐进推进农业农村污染防治。在开展农村环保工作的具体举措上,日本也有较多可借鉴之处:一是以完善的法规政策体系保障农村环境管理;二是以精准的财政补贴支撑农村环境管理;三是以科学的规划和技术标准体系服务农村环境管理;四是以规范的行业和市场服务体系推动农村环境管理;五是以亲民务实的环境宣传教育助力农村环境管理。     

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.     

MANAGING GROUND WATER QUALITY IN RELATION TO AGRICULTURAL ACTiVITIES1

ABSTRACT: Ground water quality is an environmental issue of national concern. Agricultural activities, because they involve large land areas, often are cited as a major contributor of ground water contaminants. It appears that some degree of ground water contamination from agricultural land use is inevitable, especially where precipitation exceeds evapotranspiration. For this reason, and because agriculture differs significantly from point sources of pollution, farmers, policymakers, and scientists need alternative management strategies by which to protect ground water. Mathematical models coupled to geographic information systems to form expert systems can be important management tools for both policymakers and agricultural producers. An expert system can provide farmers, researchers, and environmental managers with information by which to better manage agricultural production systems to minimize ground water contamination. Significant research is necessary to perfect such a system, necessitating interim ground water management strategies that include not only a strong research program, but educational and public policy components as well.     

环保新常态下环境保护综合名录工作的定位与重点探究

本文分析总结了环保新常态下面临的环保新形势,对环境管理转型提出的新要求,认为在环境管理模式由污染控制导向向质量改善导向转变,环境管理思路由注重行政许可、事前审批、指标分配向注重事中事后监管、市场自治、社会共治转变的背景下,现有环境管理制度体系整体与政策手段个体的覆盖主体、切入界面、作用机制、内在逻辑等基础理论问题需要再审视,制度架构顶层设计和分工体系需要再完善。在此背景和趋势下,本文从理论和实践两个层面深入探析了名录工具和产品主体在环境管理中的特性与作用,认为产品是市场经济条件下同时承载功能流、价值流和资源环境流的流通载体,也是制定差别化环境监管政策与市场监管政策、建立跨主体环境成本合理分担机制的最恰当主体,以此为基础,清晰界定了环境管理系统化、科学化、法制化、精细化、信息化转型要求下环保综合名录的本质特征、基本定位和潜力方向,并提出了综合名录工作下一阶段的重点任务。     

LCA: A decision support tool for environmental assessment of MSW management systems

Life cycle assessment (LCA) can be successfully applied to municipal solid waste (MSW) management systems to identify the overall environmental burdens and to assess the potential environmental impacts. In this study, two methods used for current MSW management in Phuket, a province of Thailand, landfilling (without energy recovery) and incineration (with energy recovery), are compared from both energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission points of view. The comparisons are based on a direct activity consideration and also a life cycle perspective. In both cases as well as for both parameters considered, incineration was found to be superior to landfilling. However, the performance of incineration was much better when a life cycle perspective was used. Also, landfilling reversed to be superior to incineration when methane recovery and electricity production were introduced. This study reveals that a complete picture of the environmental performance of MSW management systems is provided by using a life cycle perspective.     

Responding to Pressure on Local Natural Resources: the Story of Three Villages in South-Eastern Nigeria

There has been a recent move by development professionals away from formal “scientific” attempts to address problems caused by changing environmental conditions, towards a greater reliance on the innovative ability and indigenous knowledge of local people. This has necessitated a greater understanding of the way in which communities respond to environmental and socio-economic change. Using a model that predicts community responses to pressure on local natural resources, and data collected in three villages in south-eastern Nigeria, an attempt is made to document the way in which people react and adapt to change. It is concluded that with sufficient time communities will usually develop new resource management and agricultural systems. However, where change is occurring rapidly, a facilitator is required to encourage and accelerate local innovation so that farming and natural resource management systems can be appropriately adjusted before severe environmental degradation takes place.     

ECOLOGICAL MODELS AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES1

The recent world-wide trend towards centralization of all environmental management functions into one regulatory agency has illustrated the necessity for resources management agencies to adopt a total systems viewpoint. Environmental systems are typically complex and multi-dimensional in nature. Mathematical models for the management of air, water and land resources have found wide acceptance among planners and decision-makers. Ecological models of life processes have not reached the same state of development or acceptance. A general review of ecological systems theory and examples of the types of ecological models that have been developed to date arc presented in this paper. With this material as a background and given the vast literature on engineering and economic models, a conceptual framework for an approach to environmental studies and the analysis of polluted environmental systems is presented.     

环境管理的改革与创新

本文首先阐述了环境管理改革与创新的必要性,进而深入分析提出了环境管理手段与环境管理制度创新的对策。