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Do You Have an Environmental Management Strategy?
October 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Top notch multinational corporations have long been aware of their responsibility to a broad range of stakeholders, over and above those who might traditionally be the center of attention for the average business. Almost 80% of the world’s biggest companies have a focused environmental management strategy as part of the overall goal to attain corporate sustainability.
We’re entering what has been termed as a carbon economy and this will require every corporation to develop its own environmental management strategy and not set this element as apart from its ultimate objective. Environmentalists have long been regarded as a fringe group but the issue is now in front of a much broader range of stakeholders and cannot be ignored.
The size of a footprint was brought into focus when the International Standardization Organization produced its famous 14,000 series on corporate sustainability issues. It was realized that this footprint was far too big in the majority of cases and that a move to change was overdue. This required an analysis and a move to decrease this impact.
The 14,000 series of standards initiated by the ISO has been adopted by thousands of organizations around the world. However, it is now recognized that sustainability requires even more attention as reports and findings show us that we must reverse the already significant damage that we have caused to our climate. Environmental management strategy composition is on the urgent list of priorities.
To begin an environmental management strategy, is to analyze fundamental areas of the organization. Stakeholders must be identified and their positions and requirements fully understood. The plan must proceed from there to undergo a full lifecycle analysis, involving every single element and understanding all operating principles.
Once an organization has completely understood its operations and revealed, maybe for the first time, its true cost of doing business, it is then ready to promote its environmental management strategy at full speed. Full understanding of all operational elements is required before environmental change can be addressed.
Over recent years, education has made the consumer a much wiser individual. He or she is now turning to corporations to see what they are doing to reduce their carbon emissions and help the battle against climate change. The environmental management strategy is a required document.
The twin threats of legislative action and reputational harm hang over the corporate boardroom and mean that the company must take action on climate issues. Resource and energy usage, waste management and greenhouse gas emissions must all be tracked through software systems, solutions and procedures. To be ahead of the game and ready to make changes as they come around, the company must know that it has all its liabilities in order.
Daniel Stouffer has a lot of information about environmental management strategy and how a visit to www.verisae.com can be of use to you.
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