| Abstract: | As environmental management responsibilities expand beyond regulations to address business issues such as design for the environment, total cost accounting, and strategic planning, it is tempting to plan for expanded information systems (EMIS) to handle new responsibilities. The author argues that we should pursue exactly the opposite course: shrink the EMIS to the minimum size possible. It would be impossible to feed the self-standing EMIS with all the data it needs—replicas of almost any data tracked by the organization. The EMS and EMIS should be “meta-systems” that store the organization's knowledge about how EH&S relates to various business processes, and what should be measured and reported to assure that EH&S objectives are met. The author provides examples of how companies are creating these EMS “metasystems” by leveraging enterprise systems implemented for accounting, business planning, groupware, maintenance, and process control. |
