Environmental management system 

(EMS) refers to the management of an organization's environmental programs in a comprehensive,

systematic, planned and documented manner. It includes the organizational structure, planning and
resources for developing, implementing and maintaining policy for environmental protection.

An Environmental Management System (EMS):

 Serves as a tool to improve environmental performance

 Provides a systematic way of managing an organization’s environmental affairs
 Is the aspect of the organization’s overall management structure that addresses immediate and
long-term impacts of its products, services and processes on the environment
 Gives order and consistency for organizations to address environmental concerns through the
allocation of resources, assignment of responsibility and ongoing evaluation of practices, procedures
and processes
 Focuses on continual improvement of the system.

What is the EMS Model?

An EMS follows a Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle, or PDCA. The diagram shows the process of first developing
an environmental policy, planning the EMS, and then implementing it. The process also includes checking
the system and acting on it. The model is continuous because an EMS is a process of continual
improvement in which an organization is constantly reviewing and revising the system.[1]

This is a model that can be used by a wide range of organizations — from manufacturing facilities to
service industries to government agencies.

What are ISO, ISO 14000, and ISO 14001?

ISO stands for the International Organization for Standardization, located in Geneva, Switzerland.

ISO 14000 refers to a family of voluntary standards and guidance documents to help organizations
address environmental issues. Included in the family are standards for Environmental Management
Systems, environmental and EMS auditing, environmental labeling, performance evaluation and life-cycle
assessment.

In September 1996, the International Organization for Standardization published the first edition of ISO
14001, the Environmental Management Systems standard. This is an international voluntary standard
describing specific requirements for an EMS. ISO 14001 is a specification standard to which an
organization may receive certification or registration. ISO 14001 is considered the foundation document of
the entire series. A second edition of ISO 14001 was published in 2004, updating the standard.

ISO14001 is the dominant environmental management system in the world. 

How are these standards developed?

All the ISO standards are developed through a voluntary, consensus-based approach. ISO has different
member countries across the globe. Each member country develops its position on the standards and
these positions are then negotiated with other member countries. Draft versions of the standards are sent
out for formal written comment and each country casts its official vote on the drafts at the appropriate
stage of the process. Within each country, various types of organizations can and do participate in the
process. These organizations include industry, government (federal and state), and other interested
parties, like various non-government organizations. For example, EPA and states participated in the
development of the ISO 14001 standard and are now evaluating its usefulness through a variety of pilot
projects.

Legislation and standards

The Environmental Liability Directive [ELD] 2004/35/EC is one of the most important instruments that your
business will need to comply with and must be included in you EMS. It came into force across Europe
during 2009 and for example it became law on the 1st March 2009 converting the various national
Pollution Prevention Guidelines (PPGs) such as the UK PPG11, PPG18 and PPG21 into requirements
where failure to comply can result in fines and more significantly reformation / reinstatement costs which
can run into many millions of Euro or Dollars. Within this Directive is a requirement to mitigate the effects
of events such as spills and firewater, the latter is the runoff from fires.

Within the European Union (EU) legislation was introduced to encourage businesses to voluntarily
adopt ISO 14000.

Regulation (EC) No 761/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 March 2001, allowed
voluntary participation by organizations in a Community eco-management and audit schemeEco-
Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS).

The implementation of a robust EMS, which may incorporate ISO 14001, should lead to improve
environmental performance, including better and more consistent legal compliance.

The ISO 14000 standards reflect different aspects of environmental management. The following list
outlines the broad coverage of each:

 Environmental Management Systems:

 14001-2004, 14002, 14004
 Environmental Auditing:
 14011
 Environmental Labeling:
 14020, 14021, 14022, 14023, 14024, 14025
 Life Cycle Assessment:
 14040, 14041, 14042, 14043
Financial

 Cost savings through the reduction of waste and more efficient use of natural resources
(electricity, water, gas and fuels.)
 Avoiding fines and penalties from not meeting environmental legislation by identifying
environmental risks and addressing weaknesses.
 Reduction in insurance costs by demonstrating better risk management...
Operational and Internal

 Improved overall performance and efficiency.

 Able to monitor and reflect (audit) your business and see which areas need intervention.

Environmental policy 
is any [course of] action deliberately taken [or not taken] to manage
human activities with a view to prevent, reduce, or mitigate harmful
effects on nature and natural resources, and ensuring that man-made
changes to the environment do not have harmful effects on humans.[1]

Definition
It is useful to consider that environmental policy comprises two major
terms: environment and policy. Environment primarily refers to the
ecological dimension (ecosystems), but can also take account of social
dimension (quality of life) and an economic dimension (resource
management). Policy can be defined as a "course of action or principle
adopted or proposed by a government, party, business or
individual". Thus, environmental policy focuses on problems arising from
human impact on the environment, which retroacts onto human society
by having a (negative) impact on human values such as good health or
the 'clean and green' environment.
Environmental issues generally addressed by environmental policy
include (but are not limited to) air and water pollution, waste
management, ecosystem management, biodiversity protection, and the
protection of natural resources, wildlife and endangered species.
Relatively recently, environmental policy has also attended to the
communication of environmental issues.
Rationale
The rationale for governmental involvement in the environment is market
failure in the form of externalities, including the free rider problem and
the tragedy of the commons. An example of an externality is a factory
that engages in water pollution in a river. The cost of such action is paid
by society-at-large, when they must clean the water before drinking it
and is external to the costs of the factory. The free rider problem is when
the private marginal cost of taking action to protect the environment is
greater than the private marginal benefit, but the social marginal cost is
less than the social marginal benefit. The tragedy of the commons is the
problem that, because no one person owns the commons, each
individual has an incentive to utilize common resources as much as
possible. Without governmental involvement, the commons is overused.
Examples of tragedies of the common are overfishing and overgrazing.
Instruments
Environmental policy instruments are tools used by governments to
implement their environmental policies. Governments may use a number
of different types of instruments. For example, economic incentives
and market-based instruments such as taxes and tax exemptions,
tradable permits, and fees can be very effective to encourage
compliance with environmental policy. Voluntary measures, such as
bilateral agreements negotiated between the government and private
firms and commitments made by firm’s independent of government
pressure, are other instruments used in environmental policy. Another
instrument is the implementation of greener public purchasing programs.
Often, several instruments are combined in an instrument mix formulated
to address a certain environmental problem. Since environmental issues
often have many different aspects, several policy instruments may be
needed to adequately address each one. Furthermore, instrument mixes
may allow firms greater flexibility in finding ways to comply with
government policy while reducing the uncertainty in the cost of doing so.
However, instrument mixes must be carefully formulated so that the
individual measures within them do not undermine each other or create
a rigid and cost-ineffective compliance framework. Also, overlapping
instruments lead to unnecessary administrative costs, making
implementation of environmental policies more costly than necessary[8] In
order to help governments realize their environmental policy goals,
the OECD Environment Directorate studies and collects data on the
efficiency of the environmental instruments governments use to achieve
their goals as well as their consequences for other policies. The site
www.economicinstruments.com serves as a complementary database
detailing countries' experience with the application of instruments for
environmental policy.
The current reliance on a market based framework is controversial;
however, with many prominent environmentalists arguing that a more
radical, overarching, approach is needed than a set of specific initiatives,
to deal coherently with the scale of the climate change challenge. For an
example of the problems, energy efficiency measures may actually
increase energy consumption in the absence of a cap on fossil fuel use,
as people might drive more efficient cars further and they might sell
better. Thus, for example, Aubrey Meyer calls for a 'framework based
market' of convergence examples of which are ideas such as the
recent Cap and Share and 'Sky Trust' proposals.
History
The 1970's marked the beginning of modern environmental policy
making. On January 1, 1970, President Richard Nixon signed
the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). At the time,
Environmental Policy was a bipartisan issue and the efforts of the United
States of America helped spark countries around the world to create
environmental policies.[11] During this period, legislation was passed to
regulate pollutants that go into the air, water tables, and solid waste
disposal. President Nixon signed the Clean Air Act in 1970 which set
the United States of America as one of the world leaders in
environmental conservation.