Business and the Environment
All of the following environmental issues are related to our way of life and the way we do business:
- Climate change
- Ozone depletion
- Ground level ozone
- Local air quality, hazardous emissions, particulates
- Water quantity and quality
- Contaminated land
- Amenity impact
- Bio diversity
- Resource depletion
- Landfill
Many of these problems are caused by waste in its broadest sense:
- Atmospheric emissions
- Effluent discharge
- Wasted energy
- Unwanted products and by-products
- End of life products, such as batteries and machinery
- Solid and Contained liquid wastes, which have specific UK (and EC) legal definitions, e.g. directive, controlled and hazardous waste, including packaging.
It is clear for a business that the more sensibly it purchases and uses materials and the less it throws away or wastes through inefficient machinery or working practices, the more its profits go up! That means in most cases good environmental performance means good economic performance.
Pressures to Respond
Stakeholders hold a significant interest in the activities and environmental performance of business, these may include:
- Regulators, e.g. the Environment Agency and/or Local Authority
- Customers
- Financial institutions, such as banks and insurers
- Local community and resident groups
- Employees
Environmental issues are increasingly being mainstreamed into economic areas, this is deliberate UK and EU policy to make businesses more efficient and force the polluter to pay, examples include
- Climate change levy
- Landfill tax
- End of life vehicles
- Increased and more stringent environmental protection e.g. hazardous substance bans, fridge and electro-scrap disposal, ceasing co-filling hazardous waste at landfill sites
Environmental issues can also pose business risks to an unaware company, such as:
- Land contamination
- Purchase of plant and substances that may soon be banned or obsolete
- Non-compliance with regulatory requirements
- Emergency planning
- Asset management
All of these reasons mean there is a need for a business to monitor and assess the threats and opportunities of environmental trends and new developments. An Environmental Management System provides a routine, integrated and consistent approach to identifying, monitoring and managing these issues and mitigating risks and/or regulatory contravention.
What is Environmental Management?
Environmental Management Systems (EMS) are sets of simple procedures that enable businesses to reduce the impact they have on the environment and increase their operating efficiency. Environmental regulation is becoming increasingly stricter and an EMS not only helps a business ensure it is complying with legislation, but also provides a means for addressing non-regulated environmental aspects such as energy efficiency and resource conservation.
EMSs come in a variety of forms, and can be used in a variety of settings - in factories, small businesses, service industries, and government agencies. By reinforcing your existing operations with a comprehensive approach to environmental management, an EMS can help you streamline operations, create awareness that environmental protection is every employee's job, and improve environmental performance and quality.
For well-run companies, an EMS builds on practices already in place to meet business objectives, such as: goal setting, work practices, employee training, records management, emergency preparedness, organizational structure, and continuous improvement, for less effectively managed companies, an EMS can be an introduction to all these principles.
Improve Environmental Performance
Many companies act on environmental management only when they reach the crisis stage, quite often prior to prosecution. Their focus is reacting to a problem rather than preventing it, proactive planning with an EMS means fewer surprises. By looking at all aspects of performance, a company can find improvement opportunities that might otherwise go unnoticed, these can include less rejected products, machines running more efficiently, saving fuel costs due to better route planning or simply getting staff to turn off the lights.
Make Your Business More Competitive
Whether it is reducing energy costs or eliminating unnecessary chemicals, a pound saved through improved efficiency is a pound earned. By choosing products more carefully and reducing the use of hazardous materials, a lot of time and effort associated with complying with COSHH (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health) regulations and expensive waste disposal can be saved. All of these savings can be used to grow the business or reward employees. At an even more basic level, an EMS can help secure access to certain markets. Today, many industries, are requiring suppliers to meet codes of environmental conduct or to be certified under the international EMS standard, ISO 14001.
The trend is clear - companies that get strategic about environmental performance are going to have a real advantage in an increasingly competitive global marketplace.
Save Money
By providing a more systematic approach to environmental management, an EMS can reveal many opportunities for improving efficiency. This can help cut waste, prevent pollution, conserve resources, and save money. For example, the business can benefit from improved operating practices (no cost - rapid pay back) as well as lower operating costs by switching to newer, cleaner technology (medium cost - longer term payback).
An EMS can show where upgrades and other environmental improvements best fit into the overall business strategy, and help weigh the costs and benefits of changes, thus making well-informed decisions.
It is very rare that a business cannot reduce its energy and water use, by at least 10%.
Boost Public Image
Improving environmental performance can be just as important externally. People expect companies in their communities to operate in an environmentally sound manner. As more information is made available over the Internet, citizens can go online and find out about toxic emissions, compliance with environmental standards, and more. An EMS provides the structure to measure how well your environmental management program is working. By measuring progress against goals, and proactively reporting the results, you can help build public trust and credibility.
This type of transparency can affect investor decisions, too. Indeed, financial analysts are paying more attention to environmental management than ever before. And a new generation of socially responsible investment funds is designed with the environmentally-conscious investor in mind.
Improving performance can boost relations with yet another group - regulatory agencies. Both the Local Authority and the Environment Agency are far more likely to be convinced that a company is behaving responsibly, where accurate records are kept, procedures are in place to prevent problems and performance is monitored.
Help Retain and Recruit Employees
Environmental, health, and safety issues are often of great interest to employees. An EMS can boost performance in these areas, and in so doing, boost employee pride, morale, and overall job satisfaction. This can be useful in terms of retaining current workers - and recruiting new ones.
Better Manage Environmental Legal Obligations
An EMS provides the structure to ensure that environmental legal requirements are identified and complied with. In the short term, this helps avoid violations and all the repercussions they can bring. Longer term, an EMS can help make important decisions about the timing and size of investments needed to comply with future regulations.
The implementation and effective running of an EMS will add value to the risk assessment of a business carried out by Mid Beds District Council and the Environment Agency. Officers will evaluate the EMS to determine the inspection frequency for permitted installations (and other business activities), i.e. those with a well organised EMS may be inspected less frequently under the new IPPC (Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control) regulations.
Regulation of Industry - LAPC, LAPPC, and LA-IPPC - does it affect you?
- LAPC (Local Air Pollution Control)
- LAPPC (Local Authority Pollution Prevention and Control)
- IPPC (Integrated Pollution Prevention Control)
- LA-IPPC (Local Authority Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control)
Information on the regulation of industry can be found by clicking here
Where to Look for Help
Help is available through a variety of sources, including universities, trade associations, government agencies and private consultants.
Bedfordshire
The following site provides information about a whole range of initiatives available in Bedfordshire, including the Green Business Network, The Bedfordshire Waste Exchange and the Business Environmental Training Initiative (BETI) as well as direct links to individual project sites and current news and case studies.
UK General
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/business/index.htm
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk
General Enquiry Line: 0845 9333111 Pollution Hotline: 0800 807060 Floodline: 0845 9881188 Email: enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk
UK Legislation
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/netregs
UK Free advice, support and grants to reduce overheads
http://www.thecarbontrust.co.uk/energy/pages/home.asp
Helpline for all 0800 585794
Useful Links Page
http://www.blsbp.co.uk/contact/links.asp
Do Something Now
Isn’t it time you thought about an EMS for your business? Keep in mind that you don’t have to do everything at once. You just have to get started. An EMS will lead you to assess where you are, where you want to go, and what issues are most important for your operation.
The Most Important Thing Is to Start!
An EMS makes good sense — for your business and the environment.
