Assessment and design of industrial environmental management systems

Environmental management systems (EMS) are gaining acceptance as a tool for organizations to monitor activities with environmental impacts. Current EMS frameworks, such as the International Organization for Standardization EMS (ISO 14000), call for organizations to establish an environmental policy, set goals and targets for current environmental impacts, develop procedures and practices for tasks that have environmental impact, and conduct regular audits and reviews of the system. However, these EMS frameworks focus on the process of identifying and monitoring environmental impacts. The EMS do not provide information to management decision makers that can be used to evaluate options to cost-effectively reduce environmental impacts.;This research evaluates current EMS frameworks from an organizational perspective. A comparison of firms in the automotive assembly sector shows that facilities certified to ISO 14000 have a higher toxic waste per vehicle ratio and are just as likely to be out of compliance with air emission permits as facilities which have not been certified. Limitations of the ISO 14000 EMS are identified by applying the standard to several industrial scenarios which have environmental impacts. The exercise demonstrates the lack of comprehensive data collection and dissemination in the existing EMS structure. The ISO 14000 EMS also does not share effective characteristics of other environmental regulations and initiatives. An examination of safety management, however, reveals that non-financial factors can be improved when part of organizational strategy. Common outcome measures of safety are widely used by organizations, government agencies, and insurers to identify poor performance and target operational changes.;Environmental management systems must be redefined to be more effective for organizations. Effectiveness should be assessed with respect to regulatory compliance, changes in environmental impact, and cost. A model EMS is proposed that is based on providing information linked to each of these aspects. An essential component of EMS should be relevant, useful, and timely outcome measures. Outcome measures can focus the EMS as a tool to improve management decisions to reduce environmental impacts and to reduce costs. This EMS model can be implemented across a wide range of industries using the existing data collection and analysis systems of organizations.