Environmental Management System - Essay Example

Name: Tutor: Title: Environmental Management Institution: Date: Environmental Management Introduction Environmental management is an essential subject globally. Pressure to reduce adverse effects on environment comes from several sources such as governments, trade association, supply chains as well as other social and financial stakeholders. Additionally, in Sheffield in UK, social pressures are developing array of interested parties, for example consumer, environmental and marginal non-governmental organisations, academia in addition to neighbours. In Sheffield, an Environmental Management System offers a structure for the management of environmental responsibilities efficiently in a way that is integrated into the overall environmental operations (Winkler 2008). Environmental management system Environmental management is a systematic approach for identifying practical ways of saving water, energy and materials, and also lowering the negative effects of human development to the natural resources along with the environment. Environmental management tries to balance economic growth and development with environmental quality, to make best use of the welfare of individual communities and society at large. With the rising industrialisation of urban environments, the role of the environmental manager has turned out to be more significant as environmental regulations need industry to supervise and control the interaction between themselves as well as the broader environment (Winkler 2008). Sheffield has major initiative in re-inventing its environmental management procedures through designing, building and also implementing a management system that covers all environmental aspects. Environmental management system focuses on five areas, namely; sustainability, compliance, resource conservation, environmental stewardship as well as education and research (Winkler 2008). The main objective of environmental management system in Sheffield is to improve the areas’ environmental performance. Environmental management system enables UK to improve general environmental performance, reduce negative environmental effects, integrate environmental matters into decision-making and incorporate environmental values in governing policies. In other word, environmental management system identifies the environmental impacts of what people do, identifies priorities, establishes performance improvement objectives, set off projects that support environment and constantly monitors and measures the success of environmental conservation goals. For example, Sheffield First for Environment is an affiliation formed for managing Sheffield’s approach to accomplishing environment excellence, and development and implementation of the environment strategy. This affiliation has a board that champions matters within Sheffield by illustrating leadership and incorporated working with other affiliations at the local, regional, national as well as global height. The goal of this strategy is to set up Sheffield as a city whose natural environments are distinguishing and of high quality, where the assets at Sheffield are acknowledged for their direct contribution in environmental conservation (Winkler 2008). International environmental concerns There have been predictions that human activities would get in the way with the way the sun interacts with the earth, which leads to global warming as well as climate change. These predictions have turned out to be true and climate change is currently interrupting global environmental stability. For instance, environmental issues of international concern include: Ozone layer depletion Global warming Loss of biodiversity (Gunningham 2006). Ozone layer depletion Ozone is extremely reactive and effortlessly broken down through man-made chlorine and bromine substances. The procedure of ozone depletion starts when CFCs as well as other ozone-depleting compounds are release d into the atmosphere. Winds effectively mix and consistently spread the ozone depleting substance within the troposphere. The compounds cannot dissolve in the rain and are very stable in addition to have a long life span. After numerous years, they reach the stratosphere through diffusion. The effects of ozone layer depletion include: effect on human and animal health, negative effect on terrestrial plants, affect bio-geo-chemical cycles, and affect the quality of air (Gunningham 2006). The international ozone depletion counter measures include: International cooperation, agreement to do away with the chemicals that deplete ozone layer Tax imposed for compounds that deplete ozone layer Recommending usage of ozone friendly substances, these compounds have less depleting potential and also shorter life span. Recycling the CFCs and Halons (Gunningham 2006). Global warming Prior to industrial revolution, human activities discharged very few gases into the environments and all climatical changes took place naturally. After the industrial revolution, via fossil fuel combustion, changing farming techniques and deforestation, the natural gas composition within the atmosphere is impacted and hence environment started to change significantly. The main greenhouse gases that cause global warming include carbon dioxide. Green house gases are in existence in extremely small amounts are contributing to global warming. The main sources of carbon dioxide include fossil fuels and land usage changes. Net discharges of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels and land use changes are perceived to be causing the increase in atmospheric concentrations from the time of industrial revolution. Since estimations illustrate that about 80% of all anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions at present are from combustion of fuel, world energy usage has become the main subject of the climate debate (Bellamy 2009). Biodiversity loss Biodiversity is the diverse life on earth along with its biological diversity. Biodiversity heightens the productivity of ecosystem where each and every species has a vital role and that it is the combination of all species in the ecosystem that enable the ecosystem to posses the capacity of preventing and recovering from various disasters. At present, it is believed that human activities are altering the biodiversity and hence resulting into enormous extinctions. According to the World Resource Institute, there is a connection between biodiversity and climate change. Fast global warming can have an effect on ecosystems ability to adapt naturally. Over the last 150 years, deforestation has made contribution of about 30% of the atmospheric accumulation of carbon dioxide. It is also a major driving force of the gene loss, extinction of species and also crucial ecosystem services (Bellamy 2009). Environmental law In Sheffield, environmental law is the body of law that is used in protecting and improving the environment. The rising cost of energy bills together with concerns regarding the environmental impact of carbon emission gives many reasons to take the necessary steps to lower the consumption of energy and production of waste at present and in the future, and gain from the allied reduction in costs and carbon footprint (Bellamy 2009). The role of technology in environmental management The conventional means of reducing the environmental impact from industry has been to install control equipment to chimneys as well as effluent pipes. The control equipment remove or change the industrial gases, can recover materials for recycling and are valuable in cleaning-up existing industrial procedures that cannot be substituted with immediate effect. Nevertheless, the control equipments might not be enough alone to exploit resource usage and reduce waste. To tackle this, techniques have changed to the improvement of products and industrial procedures so that they need fewer raw materials, less water and energy and generate less waste. However in Sheffield, there has not yet been an entire change in this direction, although in parts where this has taken place the key-driver has been cost-savings from more resourceful technologies and the goal of reducing negative environmental impacts. In regard to innovation and the environment, the department of trade and industry in UK and its localities like Sheffield, this department is concerned with exploiting new ideas (Winkler 2008). Technical innovation builds new technologies, whereas institutional innovation is concerned with changing organisation behaviour. The intention of the government’s innovation polices is to play an important role in direction of business to encourage innovation and to endorse the uptake of new technologies. For instance, innovation policy aims at supporting fundamental science and engineering; to promote research and development via academic and industry connections and to provide tax credits for organisations that take on R&D. Whereas there is extensive acknowledgement that such innovation is essential for achieving environmental goals, the government recognises that present innovation policy along with environmental policy are not incorporated (Falloon 2009). Example of NEPIs utilised within the UK include: Market based instruments This offers fiscal incentives for industrialists to decrease detrimental discharges to the environment. They are designed for changing of behaviours. Examples of market based instruments consist of: The Landfill Tax: This refers to the charges placed on disposal waste to landfill. Its purpose is to push those producing waste to generate less waste, utilise alternative processes of disposing the waste and to recycle the waste. The Climate Change Levy: This is the charge placed on energy usage and is applied to all areas of the business quarter. Its purpose is to push business to build up and utilise energy technologies that are efficient. The 1005 Capital Allowances Scheme: This is offered to organisations making investments in energy saving technologies. It is a tax relief on investment within various energy saving equipments that have been consented by the government. The UK Emission Trading Scheme: This is a scheme that enables contributors to trade with greenhouse gas emission allocations. Basically, a total satisfactory emissions scope for all parties taking part is established, which is after that split into units and disseminated among the participants. Allowance may be purchased and traded to meet the target of the emissions. Accordingly, participants who decrease emissions and have additional allowances are able to sell their permits to others who feel that emissions reduction is more costly or complex. The renewable obligation: This necessitates electricity supplies to supply a give percentage of their power from renewable sources like wind or wave power. Additionally, credits may be traded to promote the usage of renewable energy (Christ 2007). Voluntary Agreements This refers to the accords made between the industry and public authorities to meet the environmental goals. Voluntary Agreements are extremely cost-effective measures and they are flexible and can be initiated within shorter timescales. A good example is where car industries enter into the voluntary agreement on carbon dioxide emissions (Christ 2007). Information and awareness schemes Schemes like ‘eco-labelling’ offer information regarding environmental performance of products and services. This enables the consumers to make informed choices in what they purchase. These are more effective in markets having strong ‘green’ consumerism, for instance organic produce (Gunningham 2006). Environmental policy mechanisms For a long time, the regulation of environment in UK has been through an approach branded as ‘command and control’. There are specific standards where potential polluters should abide by, which is the command. Again, there is rigorous scrutiny and enforcement, which is the control. Command and control, for instance by IPC and lately IPPC, has accomplished some success, particularly within reduction of both air and water pollution. Nevertheless, it is generally perceived as nonflexible and brings in some concerns of if it has the ability to inhibit radical innovation. It also entails high costs for its implementation and enforcement, and cannot readily control discharges from diffuse sources, for example agricultural fertilisers that might have an effect on the quality of drinking water (Falloon 2009). New environmental policy instruments The Better Regulation Task Force, which is an independent body responsible for advising the government, advocates that substitutes to regulation be taken into consideration where possible to deliver policy more resourcefully and successfully. In this regard, New Environmental Policy Instruments have surfaced within the last decade, with the intention of making it more flexible as compared to command and control regulation. Additionally, the new environmental policy instruments are aimed at stimulating innovation and reducing the costs associated within monitoring and enforcement. UK is currently acknowledged as a leader in designing of environmental policy instruments (Christ 2007). The implementation of numerous environmental policy instruments is done as element of a mix of policies. For instance, tools utilised in tackling climate change consist the tax on fuels, Climate Change Levy, and the Emissions Trading Scheme. Some NEPIs, for example the landfill tax and climate change levy are aimed at being ‘revenue neutral’, when money raised goes back to the business. For landfill tax, this is achieved by using programs that support in helping improvement if waste treatment, encouraging recycling and promoting new waste management technologies. Still, some percentage of the revenue returns to the business by reducing contributions to national insurance. The function of this is to tax ‘bads’ like waste and to uphold ‘goods’ like employment (Falloon 2009). Conclusion In conclusion, in UK, environmental policies covering all regions including Sheffield have emerged to indicate changing attitudes towards the environment. New generation of policy tools has been initiated and consists of environmental taxes, trading systems as well as voluntary agreements. There are environmental management systems that are tools used in the improvement of environmental performance and reduction of negative effects on the environment. The environment management systems provide order and consistency to tackle all environmental concerns systematically by allocating resources, assigning responsibilities and ongoing assessment of practices and processes. Environment management systems manage human activities that manage the environment the reason they focus on the interactions that organisations in the country have with its environment. Bibliography Bellamy R, et al, 2009, Managing the health effects of climate change: Lancet and University College London Institute for Global Health Commission, Lancet, Vol. 373:1693–1733. Christ R, et al, 2007, Summary for policy makers. In: Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Geneva. Falloon P, et al, 2009, Impacts of climate change on indirect human exposure to pathogens and chemicals from agriculture. Environ Health Perspect, Vol. 117:508–514. Gunningham, N., 2006, Next Generation Environmental Regulation, Greenleaf, Sheffield. Parliamentary Office of Science & Technology, 2004, Post note, Environmental Policy and Innovation, Vol. 212. Winkler, A., 2008, Sheffield City Report, ESRC Research Centre, Sheffield. Read More