Environmental management is not a new concept by any means but was first taken up as being in style within the United States doing the 80s. More and more organizations realized that they must place particular emphasis on environmental issues and that it was no longer acceptable by any means to refer to pollution as simply a byproduct of being in business.
During the 1990s, the International Standardization Organization was close on the heels of the European Community to introduce standards to force people to focus on environmental management. It is certainly true that there were many punitive regulations in place within certain jurisdictions and governments, but many considered these to be too punitive. The ISO standard reflected something that was now responsible to be involved with.
The Bruntland Commission brought a lot of attention to environmental management. It was stressed that it was not acceptable to regard the use of the environment as a kind of “free for all,” where there were no repercussions. Individual organizations needed to look internally to see what they could do to correct the situation and environmental issues needed to be considered as a direct response to the new mantra of sustainable living.
There has been much criticism of the ISO 14001 standard in particular, as it seems to be based more on conformity rather than performance. In other words, whether an organization has policies and procedures consistent with its environmental policy and not whether the systems actually protect the environment. In this way it could be said that it is focused inwardly rather than on strategic methods for improvement.
Rather than go out on their way to make a difference, it seems that many senior management do not fully grasp the entire concept of environmental management standards. Too often it seems that they pay more attention to conformity and delegate the oversight to junior management within their organization.
There are certainly hurdles to overcome as environmental management standards are implemented. Many organizations and a large number of developing countries see the imposed international standards as barriers to trade and as the creator of additional unwanted costs.
Stringent international standards will do a lot to focus attention on the issue of environmental management. They may not always lead to direct and tangible improvements though as some refer to them as merely part of a marketing approach to the battle.
Environmental management issues are about to become front and center as we see more direct government intervention and the introduction of market-based instruments to help control. Organizations must now reduce carbon pollution, probably through “cap and trade” schemes. As our reliance on fossil fuels is reduced, we will also produce less waste and through efficiencies will be considerably more adept at water usage.