Environmental Management Systems

Book excerpt: Implementing an Environmental Management System (EMS) has become a crucial consideration for large organizations. This book offers insight to practitioners and professional students as to why they have been developed, how they are implemented and the barriers that can impact on their effectiveness. A practical, experience-based text written by leading consultants and researchers, the book explores the drivers that have led to the development of environmental strategies and the benefits of formulating a complete EMS. The book examines the way in which EMSs are structured to ensure that a company achieves continuous improvement in environmental performance. Alongside practical advice for businesses that wish to achieve accreditation, the book addresses key issues to be aware of to ensure optimum benefits, different strategies that companies may adopt to establish an EMS and the challenges that arise when trying to integrate an EMS into the business strategy. Also included is a review of the ways in which academics try to categorize and predict the effectiveness of these different approaches to EMS using modelling tools. Finally, case studies are presented to demonstrate examples of companies that have implemented their own EMS, the different approaches that they have taken and the resulting issues that have emerged. This is essential reading for all environmental practitioners as well as students of environmental management and business.