What is ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT and its SYSTEMS

The term environmental management is a concept that you have probably heard lately, especially in work or business settings. There are a lot of things to say about environmental stewardship, which becomes more important every day because of the ecological crisis that we already suffer.

In this Green Ecologist article we are going to see what are the most important and basic ideas to take into account when talking about this aspect, such as examples what is environmental management, the types of systems for this management, the ISO 14001 standard and works.

What is environmental management - definition

The environmental management is the strategy or action plan with which it is tried to organize the whole series of human activities in such a way that they impact the environment as little as possible, thus seeking sustainable development and a balance between the economic and material interests of the human being, and the conservation of the environment, without which we cannot survive.

Environmental management covers a large number of areas, among which the following 7 are distinguished:

Environmental policy
Territorial planning
Environmental impact evaluation
Pollution
Wild life
Environmental education
Scenery

Environmental management can be applied from companies to societies, and its objectives are reduce the impact of human activity on nature, respect and favor biodiversity, implement the environmental factor between the lines of competitiveness of companies and improve legislation and social awareness.

Obviously, pursuing these objectives has a cost in human and material resources that not all companies or governments are willing to assume, this being the main problem that environmental management faces.

What is the ISO 14001 standard

ISO 14001 is a standard belonging to the series of ISO 14000 standards, which cover different aspects of the environment. The ISO 14001 was published in 1996, and is an international standard of environmental management, which defines how to establish a good Environmental Management System.

It is a voluntary standard, which is implemented or not based on the interests of each organization, and its main objective is to prevent pollution to support environmental conservation.

The benefits that companies receive for adopting ISO 14001 are diverse, among which the following stand out:

The improvement of the reputation of the company, to be able to announce with foundation that it participates in the conservation of the environment.
The cost savings that proper waste management can entail, as well as proper use of resources and energy, which can make processes more expensive when they are not optimized.
In addition, at the legal level, a company that can certify that it complies with the requirements of ISO 14001 can receive bonuses or avoid fines depending on the regulations of the country in which it is located.

Types of environmental management systems

There are several types of Environmental management systems, also called SGMA.

The Formal, as we have just seen, are those that follow ISO 14001
Other Standard EMSs may choose to follow the EMAS standard (Community Regulation for Eco-management and Eco-audit). This is a regulation, also of a voluntary nature, established by the European Union and updated in 2009, to recognize companies or organizations that have established an EMS and a commitment to improvement. The main difference between EMAS and ISO 14001 is the international nature of the latter, while the former affects only the member countries of the European Union.
Finally, there are the informal EMS, which are those that are carried out through an environmental management course and internally, seeking to minimize waste production and energy consumption.

Environmental management jobs

There are a lot of actions and measures that can be applied to the environmental management plan of a company, regardless of its size. Obviously, large companies have much more to save and improve with an appropriate environmental management plan, but small companies have an equally important responsibility, and also some remarkable advantages to obtain.

Some examples of this are as follows:

Replacing outdated bulbs or bulbs with low-consumption ones is very common, but we are not always aware of the great savings in electricity that it can mean annually for a company. Sometimes more powerful lighting is used than is really necessary, which is a very high expense compared to the cost of updating it.
Minimizing the production of waste and waste is another factor that may seem superfluous, but it can lead to great savings when it comes to disposing of this waste.
Respecting the separate collection regulations is very important too, and it must be remembered that it is also a legal obligation.
Carrying out a correct management of these aforementioned tasks can mean great savings both financially and in legal problems, as well as being a benefit for the environment.

In addition, works related to environmental management are all those who enter the aforementioned areas, which we remember here: