Implementation of EMS in the Business of Construction
The world of modern business adapts widely the Environmental Management Systems which are harmonized. It is widely known that Japan was the first country to have initiated environmental management systems in their industry of electronics, and it was accepted in Europe and the Stated in the 1980′s. These regions adapted it mostly for industries which are polluters (power and chemical industries), but as time went by, other industries accepted it as well, even if their environmental impact wasn’t as high.
Good Sides
There are many world environmental challenges that construction companies run into. For example, there are complex and strict regulations and laws concerning the environment, as well as high costs and severe penalties for violation that can have an impact on construction companies, stopping their growth and possibly survival. Apart from this, the public is highly concerned about the environment, which made construction companies change their way of thinking, and search for new ways to both sustain and make their solvency better.
Many construction companies, regardless of their size, have shown that a good EMS has advantages on many levels, one of them being the fact that when used, it can keep the company on top of the competitive market.
It is a well-known fact that countless number of construction companies globally have immensely benefitted through implementation of EMS. For example, the benefits are many:
* Lowering costs through prudent use of resources and waste minimisation.
* Ability to comply with stringent environmental laws and regulations. Thereby, reducing risks delays and avoid penalties.
* Ability to monitor or keep track of environmental issues pertaining to all phases of construction projects.
* Increased competitiveness and explore market opportunities through environmentally friendly construction services offered to environmentally sensitive customers.
* Facilitate effective communication and dialogue among all stakeholders involved internally as well as externally. In other words, fostering better relationships with regulators or law enforcement agencies including the communities.
* Enhanced corporate image as a socially and ecologically responsible construction business, leading to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification.
* Creating a highly involved (or motivated) and responsible staff or a responsive environmental team within the organisation
What does it mean when EMS is effective?
Having an effective EMS means that one has more than just healthy external environment. There are Occupational and Healthy (OH&S) procedures, and when applied, it means that there are good and safe conditions for work as well. Basically this means that the standard ISO14001 is implemented with EMS, while the OH&S implement the standard OHSAS18002:2008. This can only mean one thing: blending of the two will bring success as ell as safety in the business of construction.
ISO14001 stipulates the exact requirements for an EMS. It essentially applies to environmental concerns which the construction organisation has the control over and at the same time such concerns can have an influence on its performance.
Essentially, ISO14001 comprised of:
* Environmental Management System (EMS)
* Environmental Auditing
* Environmental Labelling
* Environmental Performance Evaluation
* Life cycle assessment (ISO 2002)
In essence, ISO14001 is a voluntary standard that can be adapted by any construction organisation. It mainly helps the organisation to systematically control construction activities that have a detrimental effect on the environment. Specifically, it covers 17 elements or aspects clustered into five key areas:
* Environmental Policy
* Planning
* Implementation and operation
* Checking and corrective action
* Management Review
In essence, ISO14001 aids companies for construction to be in sync with current regulations and laws of environment, and it also improves the processes that have to do with the environment continually.
The model of Plan-Do-Check-Act is pursued by any Environmental Management System (EMS), which is, basically a management process. There is plan which covers every aspect of environment regarding the actions of any construction organization. Also, it will help them revise, develop, monitor, review and implement plans of action at all times, but their role is to also make the overall operations better, especially those that could affect the environment.
EMS Regarding Business of Modern Construction
To sum up, EMS is a helping tool for organizations that do modern construcions. Seeing as the customers are more and more environmentally concerned, the companies need to implement an EMS that’s effective, in order to be sustainable on the market and to survive on it. Here are some of its many advantages:
* Improved environmental regulatory compliance requirements
* Minimise risks and liabilities
* Appreciably reduce or minimise waste and pollution
* Enhance site Occupational, Health & Safety at the construction work place
* Substantial cost savings through increased performance and motivated staff
* Establishes procedures or system for continual improvement
* Enhance corporate image among all stakeholders such as investors, potential customers, community groups and regulatory authorities.
If you are seeking for information pertaining to construction compliance or safety management plan template, then have a look at the website right now and see the ideal deal for your needs.
ISO 14001 Corporate Manual
Small and medium size businesses with a single location that employ ISO 14001 Environmental Management System have developed solid models for the top level documentation. At the same time, information on Environmental Manuals for multi-facility companies has not been addressed in professional publications. This publication proposes a model of an Environmental Manual for establishing the top-level documentation structure that allows a business with more than one site to use a common ISO 14001 Environmental Management System Manual.
As a professional EMS assessor with leading certification bodies, I audited many large multi-site enterprises that had problems with aligning their corporate ISO 14001 Environmental Manuals with the corresponding procedures issued by their locations. To fill this gap, some companies create Environmental Manuals for their locations as copies of the main Environmental Manual; other businesses develop location-specific Environmental Manuals that are completely independent form the home office Environmental Manual.
In the first case, when a site-specific Environmental Manual is a copy of the corporate Manual with modifications specific to a given site, mechanisms to keep these documents coordinated are rarely defined. Difficulties of keeping these documents in sync are due to the fact that corporate Environmental Manuals are controlled by the home office, while local EMS Manuals are responsibility of site’s documentation control departments.
The 2nd approach, when companies permit their sites to establish their own Environmental Manuals, differences in all those Environmental Manuals lead to noticeable disconnect between the corporate and site-specific Environmental Manuals.
Those companies that adhere to the policy of maintaining a consistent corporate message regarding their position on Environmental issues will definitely experience a gap if they use methods that we discussed above.
As an example, we can examine one of our international clients with facilities in the United States, Thailand and Europe. This organization established pretty complete Environmental Manual for their corporate office in the US. When we visited their plant in Thailand, we found that their Environmental Manual did not include reference to local regulations; the facility in Italy did not address control of EMS records, etc.
Summarizing my EMS auditing and consulting experiences, I am convinced that these approaches to design of the corporate Environmental Manual and sites’ Manuals do not provide a solid consistent way to document organization’s Environmental Management System and Manuals.
Fortunately, there is a solution. Let’s review an example of ISO 14001 2008 Environmental Manual model that references supporting documents within the text of the Manual. For example, element 4.3.2, Legal and other requirements, may read: EMS Associates, LLP has established, implemented and maintains Legal Requirements Procedure to identify and have access to the applicable legal requirements related to the organization’s environmental aspects per the Environmental Aspects Procedure,
This model proved to be effective for a single-location company. It also will work for a multi-site business, but only for common EMS documents that are used at all locations. For example, such procedures as Documentation Management, Environmental Audit, CAPA and others may be the same for your all facilities and therefore be referenced in the Environmental Manual as shown above.
While references to common procedures in an ISO 14001 Environmental Manual are clear, we still have to address those documents that are specific to particular locations such as site-specific aspect, programs, Hazmat handling and others. When we wish to maintain just one Environmental Manual, we need to reference in it supporting procedures for all sites which may easily clutter the Manual. To solve this problem we will examine how a common Environmental Manual can efficiently reference facility-specific procedures to address statements of the organization’s ISO 14001 Environmental Manual.
As with a single-location company, a business can still use discussed reference structure if the number of locations or sites is small; let’s say not to exceed three. For example, clause 4.4.1 Resources, roles, responsibility and authority may read: Hazmat Experts Company ensures the availability of resources essential to establish, implement, maintain and improve the EMS per the Resource Procedure and the Organizational Chart HO and the Organizational Chart Singapore This example references the common Resource Procedure and site-specific organizational charts for Home Office (HO) and Singapore facility. This format works well for limited number of facilities, but it becomes ineffective when the number of company’s locations increases.
If we need to work with a company that has significant number or offices and wishes to reference in the Environmental Manual procedures controlled by its sites, we may take a different approach. For example, we can prepare a matrix to associate the corporate Environmental Manual clauses with the site-specific procedures. We can name this tool Manual Reference Matrix and consider the following reference model:
Corporate ISO 14001 Environmental Manual section
Manual Reference Matrix Table of Contents (ToC)
Site-specific Manual Reference Matrix
Location procedure
The Manual Reference Matrix is simply a list of all facilities and their Manual Reference Matrixes, as shown in the example below:
Manual Reference Matrix Table of Contents
Home Office (San Francisco, California, USA)
Toronto (Canada)
Springfield, IL (USA)
Buenos Aires, (Argentina)
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Etc.
To show how this approach works, we will document element 4.5.1 Monitoring and measurement. Our Environmental manual may state: Recycling Experts, Inc. has established, implemented and maintains a Monitoring Procedure to monitor and measure, on a regular basis, the key characteristics of its operations that can have a significant environmental impact per the site-specific key characteristics matrixes per the Manual Reference Matrix ToC. This clause indicates that the organization uses the corporate Monitoring Procedure and facility-specific Key Characteristics Matrix. To locate a facility-specific Key Characteristics Matrix, one simply needs to go to the Manual Reference Matrix ToC.
Let’s say we need to locate a Communication Procedure for our Singapore plant. When we find this clause in our Manual Reference Matrix table of contents, we actually will connect to the location’s Manual Reference Matrix. Finding the corresponding clause number in the site’s Manual Reference Matrix, we will find a site-specific procedure title that addresses our clause of the Environmental Manual.
Environmental Manual Reference Matrix may be formatted as a three-column table with the Manual Clause in the first column, HO References in the second and Location References in the third column. For example, for the element 4.4.6, Operational Control, the Los Angeles plant’s Matrix indicates that the Manual references Operational Controls Procedure HO for the corporate office and the Operational Control Procedure LA for the Los Angeles plant.
For examples of the Manual Reference Matrix, follow the links below.