Environmental Management Systems

Corporate environmental management is a holistic approach taken by companies to minimise their environmental impact and promote sustainable business practices.

The goal of corporate environmental management is to reduce environmental impacts in order to minimise negative effects on the environment while ensuring the long-term competitiveness of the company.

Environmental protection in companies includes all measures of a technical or organisational nature that aim to minimise or avoid negative effects on the environment.

These include, for example:

• Reduction of emissions
• Waste management
• Water management
• Raw material management
• Compliance with environmental regulations
• Employee training and awareness

A holistic approach to corporate environmental protection requires a systematic and continuous approach to environmental issues and a clear strategy to achieve successful long-term results.

A professional environmental management system can bring many benefits to companies. These include:

1. improving environmental performance: A professional environmental management system helps your company to minimise environmental impacts and improve environmental performance. By identifying and monitoring environmental issues, measures can be taken to minimise emissions, waste and the use of raw materials.

2. cost savings: An environmental management system can help save costs by promoting efficiency improvements and reducing waste. By identifying potential savings, companies can take action to reduce energy consumption and material use.

3. image improvement: an environmental management system demonstrates your commitment to environmental protection and can thereby help to improve your company's image. More and more customers prefer environmentally friendly companies and see environmental protection as an important factor in their purchasing decisions.

4. competitive advantage: Through the above-mentioned advantages, companies can gain competitive advantages, as costs can be reduced, and the image can be improved. Through a professional environmental management system, you can communicate your environmental performance to customers, business partners and the public.

5. environmental compliance: An environmental management system helps your company to comply with regulations and avoid potential sanctions or penalties.

An environmental management system is a structured and systematic approach that helps companies to improve their environmental performance and minimise environmental impacts. A professional environmental management system is usually based on the so-called PDCA cycle, which consists of the phases planning (Plan), implementation (Do), review (Check) and improvement (Act).

An environmental management system covers a variety of aspects, such as the identification of environmental aspects and environmental goals, the monitoring of environmental performance, the implementation of measures and the training of employees.

As a rule, an environmental management system is structured according to the international standard ISO 14001, which serves as a guideline for the implementation and certification of an environmental management system.

There are a variety of environmental management systems used in different industries and countries, e.g., EMAS, BS8555, EcoVadis or Green Globe.

However, the most important and widely used environmental management system is ISO 14001. The international standard provides a framework for the development, implementation, and certification of environmental management systems. It is based on the PDCA cycle and includes requirements for identifying environmental aspects, setting environmental targets, monitoring environmental performance and continuous improvement.

An environmental management system is relevant for companies in any industry, as every company has environmental impacts and thus there is a potential for environmental pollution. An environmental management system can help companies of all sizes and in all industries to improve environmental performance, reduce resource consumption and ensure compliance with environmental regulations.