I started the lecture with a recap of what we had learnt about ISO-14001; scope, policy, aspects & impacts, objectives, targets & programmes. . We proceeded to discuss the various sub-sections under 4.4 - Implementation (DO). This section has seven sub-sections, viz., 4.4.1 - Resources, Roles, Responsibilities and Authority, 4.4.2 - Competence, training and awareness, 4.4.3 - Communication, 4.4.4 - Documentation, 4.4.5 - Control of documents, 4.4.6 - Operational Control and 4.4.7 - Emergency Preparedness and Response.
4.4.1 - Resources are to be provided by the management for establishing, implementing and maintaining the Environmental Management System - these resources are human resources, financial resources, infrastructure and information. The top management has to appoint a Management Representative to establish, implement and maintain an Environmental Management System and to report to the management periodically about the effectiveness of the system. Role is the part played by employees apart from the functions for which they are responsible or results for which they are accountable to. An employee, for example an Accounts Officer, may take the role of an internal auditor or a trainer even though his main responsibility is in Accounting. ( We discussed the ROLE played by individual in real life - a man is a husband to his wife, is a brother to his sister or brother, is a son to his parents, is a friend to his friends etc. These are various roles he plays in his life). In order to ensure that the system is effective the management should document the responsibilities and authority (to take actions, decisions etc.) and make it known to all concerned employees.
4.4.2 - Competence of employees who are responsible for activities related to identified significant aspects need to be ensured; competence is related to qualification, training and experience. ALL employees have to be trained to understand the policy, procedures and other relevant elements of the EMS. ALL is the key word here. We discussed the case of a CEO who had not been trained in the emergency procedure and response; how would he come to know about the emergency and save his life in case of an actual emergency ?
4.4.3 - Communication is of two types, (a) internal communication with employees and contract workers working within the premises and (b) external communication with stakeholders outside the organization, like the Government Departments, Statutory bodies, NGOs, Banks, Neighbours etc. Procedure for both internal and external communication should be effective (e.g. the internal communication should ensure that the receipient of the communication has understood the content of the communication). The procedure for external communication should address the receipt and response to communication from external stakeholders. The organization should decide whether to communicate its significant environmental aspects to external stakeholders and record its decision. One method of external communication is the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guideline based Sustainability Reports.
4.4.4 - Documentation - Information with its supporting medium (paper, magnetic tape, CD, DVD etc.) is a document; Records are a sub-set of documents. Procedures, Policy, Objectives/targets/programmes etc., with the medium on which they are captured are documents. Information on the past activity, including measurements, reviews etc., are RECORDS. While documents, except RECORDS, could be changed, RECORDS cannot be changed/altered. Documents, including Records, are used as evidence of the working of the Environmental Management System. Environmental Management System Manual, capturing various elements of the EMS is one such document (ISO-14001 does not prescribe a written manual, but for better working of the system a written manual is recommended)
4.4.5 - Documents are controlled; that means that the documents are checked for their authenticity and are verified and approved by those authrorized to issue documents. This procedure is necessary to avoid obsolete documents being used in the organization. Current documents need to be available at the all places where related work is carried out. Control is also required for documents which have external origin (e.g. standards, legal documents etc). We discussed how a part of the organization was not meeting the requirement of law as they were using obsolete standards for emissions and how this could lead to risk to the organization.
4.4.6 - We discussed issues related to operational control procedures that are established to address significant environmental aspects, Procedures have to established for those activities which can cause environmental impact. These procedures identify the scope, responsibility, and the "how" of doing things.
These procedures also apply to contractors and suppliers where relevant. Procedures need not be just a summary of what has to be done; they can also presented in the form of flow-charts for clarity. Procedures should also identify the "operational Criteria" - operational ciriterion is that indicator which provides information for action that reduces the environmental impact.
4.4.7 - We discussed issues related to emergency/accident procedures and the consequence of the procedure. Incidents are indications of what is expected in days to come. Accidents and their analysis for prevention will help an organization Environmental emergency situations are those where the surrounding populations have to be evacuated or the emissions/dicharges can pollute the ground water around.. One needs to take precautions while using emergency measuers; they should not lead to other environmental issues (e.g. Sandoz fire in Switzerland
CHECK
4.5. Once we plan and implement, the next step is to CHECK. There are Five sub-sections under Checking, viz., 4.5.1 - Monitoring and Measurement, 4.5.2 - Evaluating Compliance (4.5.2.1 - Evaluation of Legal Compliance and 4.5.2.2 - Evaluation of other compliance), 4.5.3 - Non-conformity, corrective action and preventive action, 4.5.4 - Control of Records and 4.5.5 - Internal Audits
4.5.1 All environmental management programmes have to be monitored; where required measurements have to be made on identified parameters. The equipments used for such measurements have to be calibrated and the calibration records have to be maintained
4.5.2 - Procedures have to be established and implemented to periodically evaluate compliance with legal requirements as well as with other requirements to which the organization subscribes. The results of these evaluation have to be documented. In case of non-conformance, corrective and preventive actions have to be in place.
4.5.3 - Once a non-conformance to any element of the system requirements is noticed, corrective and preventive actions have to be taken to eliminate or avoid the recurrence of the non-conformance. A corrective action is the removal of the cause of non-conformance identified so that the non-conformance does not recur. The preventive actions is the change effected to the system to avoid the potential non-conformance. Preventive action is, therefore, a proactive action.
4.5.4 - In order to provide evidence that the system is working the orgnization should maintain records like the training record, record of audits and minutes of the Management Review etc. The organization decides as to which of the records are required to demonstrate the working of the environmental management system.
4.5.5 - Internal audits are carried out to evaluate the working of the EMS. Internal audits may be carried out by competent persons from within the orgnization or by those working outside the organization. An EMS audit is a systematic process of objectively collecting audit evidence against audit criteria, evaluate the audit evidence, to conclude if there sufficient evidence to show if the EMS audit criteria are met and to report to the client the conclusion of the findings. EMS internal audits have to be carried out according to ISO-19011: Guidelines for Quality and/or Environmental Management System Auditing.
4.6 Once the elements of Checking have been established and implemented, the next step to go for the Management Review. The management review addresses issues like a) results of internal audits and evaluations of compliance with legal requirements and with other requirements to which the organization subscribes, b) communication(s) from external interested parties, including complaints, c) the environmental performance of the organization, d) the extent to which objectives and targets have been met, e) status of corrective and preventive actions, f) follow-up actions from previous management reviews, g) changing circumstances, including developments in legal and other requirements related to its environmental aspects, and
h) recommendations for improvement.
The output of the management review includes, decisions and actions related to the possible changes to environmental policy, objectives, targets and other elements of the environmental management system, consistent with the commitment to continual improvement. The discussions and decisions taken at the Management Review are minuted.
Thus the Management Review completes one PDCA cycle of the EMS and triggers off the next PDCA Cycle for improving the organization's environmental performance.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Lecture 6: ISO-14001: 4.3 Planning on 15 March 2011
We started with a quick recap of ISO-14001 elements that we had studied already, like 4.1: Scope and 4.2: Environmental Policy. This class will be to discuss 4.3: Planning
Planning is the First phase of the PDCA Cycle; "IF YOU FAIL TO PLAN, YOU PLAN TO FAIL"
4.3 PLanning
4.3.1. Identifying and Assessment of Significant Aspects.
AN ASPECT is an element of the activity, product or service, that can have an impact on the environment. AN IMPACT is the change in the environmental condition, positive or negative. The system requires that Aspects of not only activities but also Products and Services have to be identified. These aspects are a part of the Environmental Management System only if they are under the control of the organization or the organization can have influence on the aspect.
We discussed the input-output model using the example of an activity like tea making. The inputs are e.g. Milk, Tea leaves, Sugar, water, LPG Gas, cups, mugs etc. The desirable output is Tea. There are quite a few un-desirable outputs, e.g. waste heat, waste water, packaging materials etc. These undesirable outputs can have an impact on the environment (hence can be classified as ASPECTS). These aspects for ALL the activities, products and services of the organization have to be identified and recorded. In one way of assessing these aspects, the following criteria are used to assess significance: a) the probability of occurrence, b) the intensity of the impact and c) the long term effect of the impact. To this one can also add the relevance of the aspect to any legislative requirement. We discussed as to how the significance will vary based on the "size" of the activity, product or service (e.g. emission of alcohol in a bottle and that in a 15 tons tanker). We also discussed that we have to identify DIRECT & INDIRECT impacts (e.g. of indirect impact, electrical energy used in the activity is related to emission of carbon dioxide at the thermal power station, leading to global warming), POSITIVE and NEGATIVE impacts, impacts due to START-UP, SHUT DOWN, ACCIDENTS etc. We also discussed that we need to capture ALL these impacts in the PAST, PRESENT and FUTURE, before assessing the ASPECT. We discussed as to how to use the assessment score to prioritize the aspects as significant as well as to ensure continual improvement. One of the requirements, which is not explicit in the ISO-14001 standard, is to RECORD all the Aspects and Impacts identified, including the significant aspects.
The next step (which can be started concurrently with the initial review) is to identify applicable legal and other requirements.
4.3.2. Legal and other requirements. The organization should establish a procedure to identify and access legal and other requirements.
Legal requirements may be local (e.g. Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, Consent for operations under the Air and Water Acts, Authorization under the Hazardous Waste (Management & Handling) Rules, etc.), Country / Region specific (especially if the organization exports to these countries, e.g. RoHS, WEEE, REACH etc.), or Global (where international protocols warrant action, e.g. Montreal Protocol, BASEL Convention etc.). Other requirements include company specific standards, guidelines, policies or industry specific requirements like "Responsible Care" of the Chemical Industry, "Electronics Industry Code of Conduct" of the electronics industry etc. It is a good practice to have a register of legal and other requirements and update it periodically.
The standard requires that the organization identifies as to how these legal and other requirements are related to the environmental aspects of the activities, products and services of the organization.
4.3.3. Objectives, Targets & Programmes
Once the organization identifies its significant environmental aspects and applicable legal and other requirements, it has to set its objecitves based on the overall intent provided by the Environmental Policy. Objetive is a goal to be achived by a particular time - say, for example, "to reduce energy consumption by 50 % by the year 2010". Target is specific measureable sub-goal, with well defined measurement index. Targets are normally SMART: S = Specific, M=Measureable, A=Achievable, R= Reasonable and T = Timebound. e.g. To reduce energy consumed per product (MJ/Piece) by 20 % by 2009. The Environmental Management Programme is an elaboration of how to achieve the target and goals, with specific responsibility, milestones for various activities, resources required, monitoring methods and review mechanism etc. Objectives on specific significant environmental aspects is one way of addressing significant environmental aspects, so that their impact is reduced once the programme is successfully completed
Significant aspects can also, apart from setting objectives, targets and programmes, be addressed through (a) training (competence building), (b) communication, (c) operational control procedures and (d) emergency and accident preparedness
Planning is the First phase of the PDCA Cycle; "IF YOU FAIL TO PLAN, YOU PLAN TO FAIL"
4.3 PLanning
4.3.1. Identifying and Assessment of Significant Aspects.
AN ASPECT is an element of the activity, product or service, that can have an impact on the environment. AN IMPACT is the change in the environmental condition, positive or negative. The system requires that Aspects of not only activities but also Products and Services have to be identified. These aspects are a part of the Environmental Management System only if they are under the control of the organization or the organization can have influence on the aspect.
We discussed the input-output model using the example of an activity like tea making. The inputs are e.g. Milk, Tea leaves, Sugar, water, LPG Gas, cups, mugs etc. The desirable output is Tea. There are quite a few un-desirable outputs, e.g. waste heat, waste water, packaging materials etc. These undesirable outputs can have an impact on the environment (hence can be classified as ASPECTS). These aspects for ALL the activities, products and services of the organization have to be identified and recorded. In one way of assessing these aspects, the following criteria are used to assess significance: a) the probability of occurrence, b) the intensity of the impact and c) the long term effect of the impact. To this one can also add the relevance of the aspect to any legislative requirement. We discussed as to how the significance will vary based on the "size" of the activity, product or service (e.g. emission of alcohol in a bottle and that in a 15 tons tanker). We also discussed that we have to identify DIRECT & INDIRECT impacts (e.g. of indirect impact, electrical energy used in the activity is related to emission of carbon dioxide at the thermal power station, leading to global warming), POSITIVE and NEGATIVE impacts, impacts due to START-UP, SHUT DOWN, ACCIDENTS etc. We also discussed that we need to capture ALL these impacts in the PAST, PRESENT and FUTURE, before assessing the ASPECT. We discussed as to how to use the assessment score to prioritize the aspects as significant as well as to ensure continual improvement. One of the requirements, which is not explicit in the ISO-14001 standard, is to RECORD all the Aspects and Impacts identified, including the significant aspects.
The next step (which can be started concurrently with the initial review) is to identify applicable legal and other requirements.
4.3.2. Legal and other requirements. The organization should establish a procedure to identify and access legal and other requirements.
Legal requirements may be local (e.g. Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, Consent for operations under the Air and Water Acts, Authorization under the Hazardous Waste (Management & Handling) Rules, etc.), Country / Region specific (especially if the organization exports to these countries, e.g. RoHS, WEEE, REACH etc.), or Global (where international protocols warrant action, e.g. Montreal Protocol, BASEL Convention etc.). Other requirements include company specific standards, guidelines, policies or industry specific requirements like "Responsible Care" of the Chemical Industry, "Electronics Industry Code of Conduct" of the electronics industry etc. It is a good practice to have a register of legal and other requirements and update it periodically.
The standard requires that the organization identifies as to how these legal and other requirements are related to the environmental aspects of the activities, products and services of the organization.
4.3.3. Objectives, Targets & Programmes
Once the organization identifies its significant environmental aspects and applicable legal and other requirements, it has to set its objecitves based on the overall intent provided by the Environmental Policy. Objetive is a goal to be achived by a particular time - say, for example, "to reduce energy consumption by 50 % by the year 2010". Target is specific measureable sub-goal, with well defined measurement index. Targets are normally SMART: S = Specific, M=Measureable, A=Achievable, R= Reasonable and T = Timebound. e.g. To reduce energy consumed per product (MJ/Piece) by 20 % by 2009. The Environmental Management Programme is an elaboration of how to achieve the target and goals, with specific responsibility, milestones for various activities, resources required, monitoring methods and review mechanism etc. Objectives on specific significant environmental aspects is one way of addressing significant environmental aspects, so that their impact is reduced once the programme is successfully completed
Significant aspects can also, apart from setting objectives, targets and programmes, be addressed through (a) training (competence building), (b) communication, (c) operational control procedures and (d) emergency and accident preparedness
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Lectures 4 and 5: ISO - 14001 on 08 February and 01 March 2011
We started with a discussion on the meaning of Management Systems. System is a set of procedures, processes and programmes which provide a framework for addressing a specific issue; Management is about the use of scarce resources (through planning, leading, organizing and controlling) to achieve the goals of the organization.
ISO-14001 Standard: Environmetal Management Systems - Requirements with Guidance for use was first published in 1996 and was revised in 2004. About 130000 organizations all over the world have got themselves certified to ISO-14001 standard by 2008. Japan leads the number of ISO-14001 certifications, followed by China. Both depend on international trade for growing/maintaining their economies. ISO-14001 provides a shield against the use of environmental issues as non-tariff trade barriers by western and other developed countries.
We started with the structure of ISO-14001 (2004) Standard - PDCA - Plan -Do -Check-Act.
There are Four sections in ISO-14001 Standard; the operative part is Section 4.
We quickly went through the meanings of various terms used in the Standard. (please see them in the document copy provided to you)
Before establishing an environmental management system, an organization may carry out an initial review of its environmental issues, procedures, practices, legal requirements and past practices/accidents etc.
4.1 is about the commitment of the organization to establish an environmental management system
4.2 is about the Environmental Policy. The Environmental Policy has to be issued by the TOP MANAGEMENT. The following are the requirement of the environmental policy:
a. It should be appropriate to the nature, scale and environmental impacts of the organization
b. It should commit the organization to compliance with applicable legal and other requirements
c. It should commit the organization to continual improvement and prevention of pollution
d. It should be available to the public
Apart from the above, the policy has to be documented, implemented and maintained. It should be communicated to employees as well as contractors,suppliers, service providers etc.
We discussed the meaning of CONTINUAL improvement; i.e. improvement that takes place in one or more areas of the organization, resulting in the overall system improvement. Improvements need not take place in all the areas at the same time or all the time; but some of the areas need to show improvement. These are determined by the resources available to the organization.
We also discussed the meaning of PREVENTION of POLLUTION; according to this standard prevention of pollution need not be complete elimination of the pollutant; it can be a reduction or control of pollution.
The meaning of "PUBLICLY AVAILABLE"is that the policy is not a confidential document and hence should be available to any stakeholder who has an interest in the policy.
We discussed the Environmental Policy of Exide; it was found to meet the requirement of section 4.2 of ISO-14001(2004). At this point I asked you to write an Environmental Policy for your department. As there was not much time available we agreed that you will be posting the two draft policies for your department at the comments space of this blog.
We also agreed that for the internal evaluation you will study an EIA report for any of the townships, large construction projects, SEZ/SEEPZ etc (e.g. Magarpata City, Amanora, Lavassa, Nanded city etc.) and write a two page summary of the environmental/social impacts of such projects, impact mitigation measures (environmental management programmes) and the final impact after implementing an Environmental Management Programme. I would request each one of you to provide me with the two page summary; you may work in groups - but I need one summary per student for evaluation.
I will not be available for the next class on 08 March 2011. We will meet on 15 March for the 6th Class.
ISO-14001 Standard: Environmetal Management Systems - Requirements with Guidance for use was first published in 1996 and was revised in 2004. About 130000 organizations all over the world have got themselves certified to ISO-14001 standard by 2008. Japan leads the number of ISO-14001 certifications, followed by China. Both depend on international trade for growing/maintaining their economies. ISO-14001 provides a shield against the use of environmental issues as non-tariff trade barriers by western and other developed countries.
We started with the structure of ISO-14001 (2004) Standard - PDCA - Plan -Do -Check-Act.
There are Four sections in ISO-14001 Standard; the operative part is Section 4.
We quickly went through the meanings of various terms used in the Standard. (please see them in the document copy provided to you)
Before establishing an environmental management system, an organization may carry out an initial review of its environmental issues, procedures, practices, legal requirements and past practices/accidents etc.
4.1 is about the commitment of the organization to establish an environmental management system
4.2 is about the Environmental Policy. The Environmental Policy has to be issued by the TOP MANAGEMENT. The following are the requirement of the environmental policy:
a. It should be appropriate to the nature, scale and environmental impacts of the organization
b. It should commit the organization to compliance with applicable legal and other requirements
c. It should commit the organization to continual improvement and prevention of pollution
d. It should be available to the public
Apart from the above, the policy has to be documented, implemented and maintained. It should be communicated to employees as well as contractors,suppliers, service providers etc.
We discussed the meaning of CONTINUAL improvement; i.e. improvement that takes place in one or more areas of the organization, resulting in the overall system improvement. Improvements need not take place in all the areas at the same time or all the time; but some of the areas need to show improvement. These are determined by the resources available to the organization.
We also discussed the meaning of PREVENTION of POLLUTION; according to this standard prevention of pollution need not be complete elimination of the pollutant; it can be a reduction or control of pollution.
The meaning of "PUBLICLY AVAILABLE"is that the policy is not a confidential document and hence should be available to any stakeholder who has an interest in the policy.
We discussed the Environmental Policy of Exide; it was found to meet the requirement of section 4.2 of ISO-14001(2004). At this point I asked you to write an Environmental Policy for your department. As there was not much time available we agreed that you will be posting the two draft policies for your department at the comments space of this blog.
We also agreed that for the internal evaluation you will study an EIA report for any of the townships, large construction projects, SEZ/SEEPZ etc (e.g. Magarpata City, Amanora, Lavassa, Nanded city etc.) and write a two page summary of the environmental/social impacts of such projects, impact mitigation measures (environmental management programmes) and the final impact after implementing an Environmental Management Programme. I would request each one of you to provide me with the two page summary; you may work in groups - but I need one summary per student for evaluation.
I will not be available for the next class on 08 March 2011. We will meet on 15 March for the 6th Class.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Lecture 3: Introduction to Environmental Management System ISO-14001 on 01 February 2011
In this lecture I explained to you what a management system means.
Management is about the optimum use of scarce resources for achieving the goal of an organization.
System refers to a set of policies, procedures and programmes which provide a framework for carrying out certain activities.
ISO-14001: Environmental Management Systems - Requirements and Guidance for use (2004) is the current updated version of the standard on environmental management systems issued by the International Institution of Standardization (ISO), Geneva. ISO-14001 Standard was first issued in September, 1996. ISO covers many environmental subjects, like LCA, Site Assessment, Environmental Performance indicators etc., under the series ISO 14000, of which ISO-14001 is a standard helping organizations to set up certifiable environmental management systems.
During the early days of ISO-14001, Japan was a leading country to embrace the certified system. This was basically due to the understanding at that time that ISO-14001 certification could be used as a trade barrier in the WTO regime. Japan, being an economy based on exports, was the first see this threat and many Japanese companies got ISO-14001 certified. In the recent years, China has overtaken Japan in terms of the number of ISO-14001 certifications obtained. It is estimated that more than 1000 organizations have got ISO 14001 certified in India.
The standard is applicable for any organization that is independent and can take environmental decisions on its behalf. Apart from manufacturing industry, municipalities, hospitals, hotels, colleges, departments of large organizations have got themselves certified to ISO 14001. In India there are many organizations like BVQI, DNV, TUV, Lloyds, UL, STQC, BIS, IRQS, RINA etc., provide certification services for ISO 14001 management systems.
The system is based on the well known Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle (or Deming's Cycle). Even though it is not a requirement of the standard, before starting on the system the organization is expected to carry out a review of its environmental practices, procedures, stakeholder complaints and legal requirements; the review also involves information on storage of chemicals, accidents and incidents, emergency situations experienced in the past. This review provides the basis for preparing the environmental policy. Environmental Policy is the intent of the organization to improve its environmental performance.
To establish a system the organization has to identify and assess its environmental aspects. Environmental aspects are those elements of the activity, product or service of the organization that can cause an impact on the environment. This part (Plan) is one of the most important parts of the ISO 14001 environmental management system; the outcome of the identification and assessment of the environmental aspect is documented. The next step in planning is to identify and access legal and other requirements relevant to the organization. Environmental objectives, targets and programmes are established based on the policy, significant aspects and legal and other requirements.
In the DO part of the system, the following are addressed: (a) Role, Responsibility and Authority for various people and activities; this includes the appointment of a management representative (MR) for the system with defined role and responsibility. (b) training of employees to ensure competence to handle various activities that may cause significant environmental impact, (c) communicating to employees and other stakeholders as required, (d) documenting various procedures and recording information, (e) controlling the documents, (f) establishing and documenting operational control procedures which are important to address significant environmental aspects, including sharing relevant procedures with the supply chain, and (g) preparing the organization for facing accidents and emergencies.
The CHECK part includes: (a) calibration of equipments and monitoring of performance, (b) assessing compliance with legal and other requirements, (c) taking corrective and preventive actions and making the necessary changes in the documents, (d) maintaining records that can provide evidence on the working of the EMS and (e) carrying out EMS audits to check if the EMS has been established.
The ACT part consists of the Management Review, with agenda as prescribed by ISO 14001; the Management Review leads to the next cycle of PDCA.
Management is about the optimum use of scarce resources for achieving the goal of an organization.
System refers to a set of policies, procedures and programmes which provide a framework for carrying out certain activities.
ISO-14001: Environmental Management Systems - Requirements and Guidance for use (2004) is the current updated version of the standard on environmental management systems issued by the International Institution of Standardization (ISO), Geneva. ISO-14001 Standard was first issued in September, 1996. ISO covers many environmental subjects, like LCA, Site Assessment, Environmental Performance indicators etc., under the series ISO 14000, of which ISO-14001 is a standard helping organizations to set up certifiable environmental management systems.
During the early days of ISO-14001, Japan was a leading country to embrace the certified system. This was basically due to the understanding at that time that ISO-14001 certification could be used as a trade barrier in the WTO regime. Japan, being an economy based on exports, was the first see this threat and many Japanese companies got ISO-14001 certified. In the recent years, China has overtaken Japan in terms of the number of ISO-14001 certifications obtained. It is estimated that more than 1000 organizations have got ISO 14001 certified in India.
The standard is applicable for any organization that is independent and can take environmental decisions on its behalf. Apart from manufacturing industry, municipalities, hospitals, hotels, colleges, departments of large organizations have got themselves certified to ISO 14001. In India there are many organizations like BVQI, DNV, TUV, Lloyds, UL, STQC, BIS, IRQS, RINA etc., provide certification services for ISO 14001 management systems.
The system is based on the well known Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle (or Deming's Cycle). Even though it is not a requirement of the standard, before starting on the system the organization is expected to carry out a review of its environmental practices, procedures, stakeholder complaints and legal requirements; the review also involves information on storage of chemicals, accidents and incidents, emergency situations experienced in the past. This review provides the basis for preparing the environmental policy. Environmental Policy is the intent of the organization to improve its environmental performance.
To establish a system the organization has to identify and assess its environmental aspects. Environmental aspects are those elements of the activity, product or service of the organization that can cause an impact on the environment. This part (Plan) is one of the most important parts of the ISO 14001 environmental management system; the outcome of the identification and assessment of the environmental aspect is documented. The next step in planning is to identify and access legal and other requirements relevant to the organization. Environmental objectives, targets and programmes are established based on the policy, significant aspects and legal and other requirements.
In the DO part of the system, the following are addressed: (a) Role, Responsibility and Authority for various people and activities; this includes the appointment of a management representative (MR) for the system with defined role and responsibility. (b) training of employees to ensure competence to handle various activities that may cause significant environmental impact, (c) communicating to employees and other stakeholders as required, (d) documenting various procedures and recording information, (e) controlling the documents, (f) establishing and documenting operational control procedures which are important to address significant environmental aspects, including sharing relevant procedures with the supply chain, and (g) preparing the organization for facing accidents and emergencies.
The CHECK part includes: (a) calibration of equipments and monitoring of performance, (b) assessing compliance with legal and other requirements, (c) taking corrective and preventive actions and making the necessary changes in the documents, (d) maintaining records that can provide evidence on the working of the EMS and (e) carrying out EMS audits to check if the EMS has been established.
The ACT part consists of the Management Review, with agenda as prescribed by ISO 14001; the Management Review leads to the next cycle of PDCA.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Lecture 2: Life Cycle Environmental Impact and EcoDesign
We started the class with the understanding that there are environmental issues throughout the life-cycle of a product, from design onwards, through manufacutring, supplychain, logistics (transportation/warehouse), use and disposal of products.
We briefly discussed how Command & Control, economic instruments and voluntary initiatives apply to various stages of the life cycle of the product. For example, at the design stage one has to consider the requirements of RoHS and WEEE (both of legislative requirements of EU); we saw some examples as to how organizations had banned certain substances like Cadmium in 1984, well before the ban of this substance through legislation in 2006 (voluntary initiatives). Designing products with high energy efficiency may qualify these products for preferential purchases (economic instruments). Likewise we can see that the conflict resolution techniques are used throughout the life-cycle of the product. Use of command and control (all applicable legislation related to resource use and emissions and discharges) in manufacturing is well known. They are equally applicable to the supplier units.....an so on.
Design of the prodcut decides if the product at the end of life goes for reuse, recycling, remanufacturing, and repair (cradle to cradle) or to landfills or incineration (cradle to grave). Product design plays an important role in the total life-cycle environmental impact of the product. Product Design that takes into consideration the ecological and economical aspects throughout the life cycle of the product is called the Design for the environment (or Eco-Design). We discussed the design for energy efficiency (e.g. dolphin of Honda), design for disassembly, design for recycling, design with lower mass ...we discussed about the possibility of using Al instead of steel in motor vehicles....we debated the "for and against" this concept. I explained to you the six focal areas of Eco-Design being used by Philips, Viz., Mass, energy, substances, recyclability, packaging and life. We touched upon the concept of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which is a tool, although mostly in the realm of academics, for assessing the environmental performance of a product. One of the points that I highlighted was that our decisions should be based on the total life-cycle environmental impact of the product rather than the environmental impact during one phase of the life cycle.
We will continue with some of the life-cycle issues in the next lecture
We briefly discussed how Command & Control, economic instruments and voluntary initiatives apply to various stages of the life cycle of the product. For example, at the design stage one has to consider the requirements of RoHS and WEEE (both of legislative requirements of EU); we saw some examples as to how organizations had banned certain substances like Cadmium in 1984, well before the ban of this substance through legislation in 2006 (voluntary initiatives). Designing products with high energy efficiency may qualify these products for preferential purchases (economic instruments). Likewise we can see that the conflict resolution techniques are used throughout the life-cycle of the product. Use of command and control (all applicable legislation related to resource use and emissions and discharges) in manufacturing is well known. They are equally applicable to the supplier units.....an so on.
Design of the prodcut decides if the product at the end of life goes for reuse, recycling, remanufacturing, and repair (cradle to cradle) or to landfills or incineration (cradle to grave). Product design plays an important role in the total life-cycle environmental impact of the product. Product Design that takes into consideration the ecological and economical aspects throughout the life cycle of the product is called the Design for the environment (or Eco-Design). We discussed the design for energy efficiency (e.g. dolphin of Honda), design for disassembly, design for recycling, design with lower mass ...we discussed about the possibility of using Al instead of steel in motor vehicles....we debated the "for and against" this concept. I explained to you the six focal areas of Eco-Design being used by Philips, Viz., Mass, energy, substances, recyclability, packaging and life. We touched upon the concept of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which is a tool, although mostly in the realm of academics, for assessing the environmental performance of a product. One of the points that I highlighted was that our decisions should be based on the total life-cycle environmental impact of the product rather than the environmental impact during one phase of the life cycle.
We will continue with some of the life-cycle issues in the next lecture
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Environmental Management for M. Arch Students: Lecture 1 on 18 Jan 2011
We started the class with a brief introduction and discussing the reason for your selecting Green Architecture.
We agreed that we will have about 10 classes of about 90 minutes duration to cover the syllabus; 2 lectures will be for introducing various elements of environmental management; 6 lectures for ISO-14001, Environmental management system and two for construction industry specific environmental issues.
We started with the definition of Management: Use of scarce resources to achieve the objectives (goals); environmental management is about the management of the physical environment. The physical environment consists of air, water, soil, flora and fauna that surround us (the biosphere).
We discussed the link between the physical environment and business (economic activity); there are three major functions of the physical environment, viz., (a) providing resources, (b)acting as the sink for the waste and (c) providing amenity value.
Development is the use of natural resources available in the biosphere for the benefit of the community through products and services. While a part of the resources are used by the business for useful products and services, a part of the resource becomes waste. Environment acts as a sink for the waste. If waste is added to the environment at a rate beyond the carrying capacity of the eco-system, the system will collapse. If the waste is disposed off without consideration for the environment, the environment may lose its amenity value (e.g. dirty beaches, strewn with plastics bags and cups). At this point we also discussed about the importance of environmental awareness; e.g. plastics bags and ban on plastics, ban on water based on the information provided. The first step is, therefore, to be analytical with respect to scare stories.
The three characteristics of the physical environment are:(a) Common Property, (b) Multiple Use and (c) Uncovered cost
One of the major problems of the physical environment is that it belongs to everyone; everyone thinks that someone else will take care of it. It is like our keeping our flat clean by sweeping it everyday, but throwing the sweepings on to a common place, because the common place belongs to everyone. Air, water, earth, fauna and flora and the biosphere belong to the whole humanity; but in the absence of individual responsibility we allow these common properties to deteriorate, which in turn will affect all us. (Discussed Tragedy of Commons - please google and find out more about this term)
Natural resources are used for many purposes. For example, water is used for drinking, cooking, cleaning, washing, gardening, irrigation, sports, transportation, cooling, as solvent, in an industry etc. If the resource is scarce (clean water is indeed a scarce resource) and there are multiple demands for this scarce resource, conflicts are bound to arise (e.g. we discussed Sinar Mas Paper mills)
Another important characteristics of natural resources is that when such resouces are used certain costs are not covered. In the conventional cost accounting we do not consider the environmental cost in calcuating the cost of an activity. For example if one is asked to calculate the cost of travel between your house and the college, one would consider the price of the motor cycle (interest & depreciation), cost of petrol, cost of maintenance, cost of insurance, etc. But not the cost of damage done to the environment due to the emissions from the exhaust, the cost of health care of people who are affected by such emissions, the cost of lost work days, the cost of physical diabilities brought in by autoemissions etc. These uncovered costs are now distributed on the society. This is potentially a conflict issue if the problem of emission goes beyond one's tolerance limits (we discussed briefly the CNG introduction in Delhi; ban on vehicles older than 15 years etc.)
We (the society) cannot allow these potential conflict situations developing into actual conflicts. Society uses three types of conflict resolution/prevention techniques, viz., (a) Command and Control, (b) Economic Instruments and (c) Voluntary initiatives.
Command & Control is the technique used by Governments to see that the society behaves within certain parameters, which are supposed to be safe, of environmental performance. For example it enacts acts and rules, like the Water (prevention & control of Pollution) Act or Air (prevention & control pollution) act to prevent and reduce water and air pollution respectively. (see http://envfor.nic.in for Indian environmental acts and rules). Statutory authorities implement these acts and rules using regulations, like the standards for emissions, discharges etc. In this way the Government tries to ensure that the common resources are used diligently by the society (we also discussed about PUC for your vehicle). Command & Control can be applied at the Municipal level (plastics bags ban), State Level (announcement of certain areas as air pollution area etc.), National level, inter-country level (We had a brief discussion on RoHS and REACH) and at the global level (Kyoto protocol, Montreal Protocol etc.)
The second technique used for conflict avoidance/resolution is the use of Economic instruments; this can be through the Government or through individual players. Government can give tax concession or impose tax depending on if an activity or product is environmentally sound or not. For example the Government (Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Cess Act)may give concession on water cess if hte industry establishes an effluent treatment facility to treat the polluted water before discharging it. It can give concession on customs duty for pollution control equipments. These concessions encourage environmentally sound behaviour of the society. Government can also encourage preferential purchase of green products (EU Green Purchasing Guidelines). One example of economic instrument that is very popular now is the "carbon credit"; this is similar to emission trading (we discussed how two factories located in a zone may be allowed to trade their emissions). By reducing the emission of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) through approved CDM projects one can earn what are called Carbon credits, which can then be sold to buyers from developed countries who have a mandate to reduce their GHG emissions. Here the Government acts as a facilitator. Individual companies can similarly influence the way society behaves; for example the "deposit-refund" system is used for getting back used products or packaging by charging a deposit when the product is bought and paying the customer an amount when the product or packaging is brought back to the dealer at the end of life of the product. (I explained how the Cocacola cans were picked up by old people in the USA to give them back to the corner shops to get a few cents).
Natural resources are used for many purposes. For example, water is used for drinking, cooking, cleaning, washing, gardening, irrigation, sports, transportation, cooling, as solvent, in an industry etc. If the resource is scarce (clean water is indeed a scarce resource) and there are multiple demands for this scarce resource, conflicts are bound to arise (e.g. we discussed Sinar Mas Paper mills)
Another important characteristics of natural resources is that when such resouces are used certain costs are not covered. In the conventional cost accounting we do not consider the environmental cost in calcuating the cost of an activity. For example if one is asked to calculate the cost of travel between your house and the college, one would consider the price of the motor cycle (interest & depreciation), cost of petrol, cost of maintenance, cost of insurance, etc. But not the cost of damage done to the environment due to the emissions from the exhaust, the cost of health care of people who are affected by such emissions, the cost of lost work days, the cost of physical diabilities brought in by autoemissions etc. These uncovered costs are now distributed on the society. This is potentially a conflict issue if the problem of emission goes beyond one's tolerance limits (we discussed briefly the CNG introduction in Delhi; ban on vehicles older than 15 years etc.)
We (the society) cannot allow these potential conflict situations developing into actual conflicts. Society uses three types of conflict resolution/prevention techniques, viz., (a) Command and Control, (b) Economic Instruments and (c) Voluntary initiatives.
Command & Control is the technique used by Governments to see that the society behaves within certain parameters, which are supposed to be safe, of environmental performance. For example it enacts acts and rules, like the Water (prevention & control of Pollution) Act or Air (prevention & control pollution) act to prevent and reduce water and air pollution respectively. (see http://envfor.nic.in for Indian environmental acts and rules). Statutory authorities implement these acts and rules using regulations, like the standards for emissions, discharges etc. In this way the Government tries to ensure that the common resources are used diligently by the society (we also discussed about PUC for your vehicle). Command & Control can be applied at the Municipal level (plastics bags ban), State Level (announcement of certain areas as air pollution area etc.), National level, inter-country level (We had a brief discussion on RoHS and REACH) and at the global level (Kyoto protocol, Montreal Protocol etc.)
The second technique used for conflict avoidance/resolution is the use of Economic instruments; this can be through the Government or through individual players. Government can give tax concession or impose tax depending on if an activity or product is environmentally sound or not. For example the Government (Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Cess Act)may give concession on water cess if hte industry establishes an effluent treatment facility to treat the polluted water before discharging it. It can give concession on customs duty for pollution control equipments. These concessions encourage environmentally sound behaviour of the society. Government can also encourage preferential purchase of green products (EU Green Purchasing Guidelines). One example of economic instrument that is very popular now is the "carbon credit"; this is similar to emission trading (we discussed how two factories located in a zone may be allowed to trade their emissions). By reducing the emission of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) through approved CDM projects one can earn what are called Carbon credits, which can then be sold to buyers from developed countries who have a mandate to reduce their GHG emissions. Here the Government acts as a facilitator. Individual companies can similarly influence the way society behaves; for example the "deposit-refund" system is used for getting back used products or packaging by charging a deposit when the product is bought and paying the customer an amount when the product or packaging is brought back to the dealer at the end of life of the product. (I explained how the Cocacola cans were picked up by old people in the USA to give them back to the corner shops to get a few cents).
On voluntary initiatives, we touched upon ISO-14001 (we will study this further later); voluntary initiatives also include industry codes like the "Responsible Care" of the Chemical Industry. This can also be company specific procedures that will save the company from environmental disasters/litigation
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