ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

In the context of the eco-business-plan of the city of Vienna in 2000 I got an award as environmental manager of the company Peithner Austroplant LDT from the mayor respective the convenor of Vienna because I implemented successfully a waste management system and an EMS passing the ISO 14001 and the EMAS norm.

An ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (EMS) is the management system of an organisation (company, agency etc.) where all competences, behaviours, procedures and pre-setting’s to full fill the environmental policy of the organisation are defined in a clear structured way. Such a management system serves and protects in the sense of the sustainable compatibility of the environment of the created products and services, but it also has its influence on the behaviour of staff and stakeholder of the organisation. In general this job is done by an environmental manager or agent, who is assisted by an external consultant.

For this such an EMS has

o the environmental policy of the organisation (i.e. the activation and identification of the intersections of ecological, economic beneficial procedures)
o the environmental protection (i.e. technical procedures to minimise all environmental impacts (normal and harmful), defined abatement measures of all not justifiable environmental impairments and claims, individual but organised contributions for prevention and rehabilitation)
o the environmental performance (i.e. measurable results related to the environmental impacts; such as emissions, sewage and all other pollutions
o legal compliance (passing all statutory requirements and legal values without a problem)
o responsibility about norms, is an environmental responsible norming of behaviour of staff and stakeholder

Actually we have for organisations (Companies, agencies etc.) two possibilities to realise an EMS: the European EMAS-II edict or the international ISO 14001:
o  Both systems (EMAS-II, ISO 14001) are promoting the continuous improvement of the environmental protection of the organisation
o  The ISO 14001 norm has its focus on implementation, maintenance and continuous improvement of the effectivity of its EMS
o  The EMAS-II is besides the aims above also focusing very intensive on possible environmental impacts and improvement of the environment performance of the organisation