Organizations of all kinds (including governments) irrespective of their size and nature of activity are becoming increasingly concerned with the on going damage to the environment and want to demonstrate that the products and services being offered by them are environment friendly.
This has become more relevant in the contemporary context of increasingly stringent legislations, developmental policies and the increased environmental awareness among general public.
6.3.1 Environmental Quality Standards
Traditionally the most common approach to environmental pollution control has been the use of standards. A standard is a level of performance that is enforced by law. An emission standard, for example, is the maximum rate of emissions that is legally allowed. The enforcing authorities can punish an organization not complying with the standard. Several types of standards have evolved for dealing with different kinds of situations. Policy making bodies like Governments and Pollution control boards enforced standards like Emission Standard, Ambient Standard, Technology based standard, Performance based standard etc. The major difficulty in the standard based approach was the high cost of monitoring compliance. In addition these standards are looked at as externally enforced rather than internally evolved. Organizations like to rather willfully follow and ensure an internal objective and this gave way to the concept Environmental Quality Objectives and goals. Organizations hence spell out their envisaged levels of performance in this form. These objectives serve as an index for evaluating the environmental performance of organizations both by themselves as well as by the external stakeholders.
6.3.2 Environmental Quality Objectives
An Environmental Quality Objectives (or EQO) is generally a non-enforceable goal, which specifies a target for environmental quality, which, it is envisaged, will be met in a specific environment, such as a river, beach or industrial site. EQOs are generally not a set of regulations.
Unlike Environmental Quality Standards EQOs are not usually expressed in quantitative terms and cannot be enforced legally.
From the point of view of the highest governing body in a country viz. the government, the overall environmental policy should be to hand over to the next generation a society in which the major environmental problems currently facing the country have been solved. To work towards this goal, environmental quality objectives and goals are framed which create a transparent and stable framework for environmental programmes and initiatives, and serve to guide such efforts at various levels in society. These objectives and goals are further split into interim objectives and action plans.
A typical list of EQOs of an apex administrative body (viz. Government) can be as under:
(1) Reduce climate impact due to pollution (2) Clean Air
(3) No Acid Rain (only Natural Acidification) (4) Protect Ozone Layer
(5) Non Toxic Environment
(6) Total freedom from Nuclear Radiation (7) No Eutrofication
(8) Pollution free water bodies (Surface, Ground and Marine) (9) Sustainable forests and agriculture.
Every sector of the society must assume its share of responsibility to implement these goals.
Public agencies, organizations, enterprises and individuals must devote more attention to environmental issues and sustainable development. Many small decisions affect the environment, and information, education and evaluation are therefore increasingly necessary. This new framework of objectives is aimed at making it possible to pursue environmental issues dynamically and specify what needs to be done, as well as to raise awareness and monitor progress. Legislation and economic instruments are parallely implemented with voluntary agreements and dialogues between government and industry. The Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are important stakeholders in this process.
6.3.3 Environmental System StandardsISO 14000
EOQs can be evolved for different organizations in their sphere of activity. The evolution of ISO 14000 series of standards is a step in this direction. These set of standards are evolved by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) based at Geneva, Switzerland. These standards deal with Environmental Management Systems (EMS) and are voluntary in nature.
The main aim of the ISO 14000 standards is to encourage effective and efficient environmental management. The standard provides the necessary tools for organizations to implement actions for achieving continual improvement in environmental performance. During the Earth Summit in Rio-de-Janeiro in 1992 the basis for these standards was laid. The essential ingredients of the ISO 14000 implementation are
• Management Commitment
• Preliminary Review and Audit
• Framing of Environmental Policy
• Create Organization structure and allocate Resources
• Set objectives and Targets and establish Review Programmes
• Prepare Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) manuals
• Train all Concerned.
• Implement SOPs and Document Control
• Carry Out Internal Audits and correct non-conformances
• EMS certification by accredited certifying agencies
• Continuous Improvement by regular monitoring and review of objectives
The critical areas of the standard involving the EQOs are the framing of the environmental policy and setting objectives and targets.
6.3.4 Oroganizational Environmental Policy
This is a written document expressing the management’s commitment for environment protection as a business goal. Environmental policy of an organization should incorporate their commitments to:
• Comply with all Regional, National and International Legislations applicable
• Document and monitor environmental impact
• Set quantifiable performance goals with continuous Improvement plan
• Move towards Sustainable development.
Objectives and Targets
The objectives and targets evolved should be consistent with the environmental policy. They should be quantifiable, measurable and achievable with sufficient effort. Unrealistic, vague and non-measurable targets will not be taken seriously for implementation across the organization. Given below are some of the sample parameters for measuring Environmental Performance of a manufacturing organization.
• Yield on product (Output/Input)
• Waste/Emission Generated (Kgs of Waste/Kgs of Product)
• Energy Consumed (KWH/Kg of Product)
• Water Consumption (Cu.M/Kg of Product)
• Compliance to Effluent Discharge standards (Quantity and Concentration)
• Recovery Targets (By Products, Recycle, Reuse)
The organization should identify and prioritize the parameters in specific areas of environmental performance improvement and provide adequate resources in terms of equipment, manpower, technology and funds. Review programmes should be established to monitor progress, resource requirement and utilization and most critically monitor performance level gaps between targeted
goals and actuals achieved. Implementation of corrective and preventive actions for closing the performance gaps should be in place. Improvement targets consistent with the technology have to be evolved and implemented.
In order to achieve targeted levels of performance the managements of the organizations should demonstrate commitment to the objectives and goals and should ensure acceptance of the objectives and goals by everyone concerned. This is best done through awareness programmes and involving all in the target setting process. Interest groups like employee associations, unions etc should be taken into confidence to ensure their full cooperation.