Environmental Management Systems
The International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) defines
an Environmental Management System (EMS) as
"a systematic
approach to dealing with the environmental aspects of an
organisation. It is a ‘tool’ that enables an organisation of any
size or type to control the impact of its activities, products
or services on the natural environment".
An environmental management system (EMS) can assist in
comprehensively addressing environmental issues, while achieving
increased credibility with key stakeholders, including
regulatory agencies and citizens. Effectively applied, an EMS
can help integrate environmental considerations with overall
operations. It sets out environmental policies, objectives and
targets with pre-determined indicators that provide measurable
goals, and a means of determining if the performance level has
been reached.
In particular, standards for EMS have been developed by the
International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) and by the
European Commission –
Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS).
See below for the key elements of an EMS
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