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Learn how an EMS can elevate your pollution prevention program, focusing on key concepts like continual improvement, total quality management, and employee involvement. Discover how top management commitment drives results and accountability within organizations.
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How An EMS Can Enhance Your P2 Program Presented by Mike Garcia Pollution Prevention and Environmental Essentials Conference – 2002
EMS – Environmental Management System • What is an EMS? • A systematic approach to planning, controlling, measuring and improving an organization’s environmental performance. • It involves a continual process of planning, implementing, and reviewing the processes and procedures an organization uses to meet it’s environmental obligations.
EMS Key Concepts That Promote Pollution Prevention • Top Management Commitment • Total Quality Management • Continual Improvement • Employee Awareness and Involvement • Checking and Corrective actions
Top Management Commitment • Establish an environmental policy that includes a commitment to pollution prevention and continuous improvement. • Integrate environmental considerations and business objectives and set clear environmental performance goals. • Insure that adequate environmental management resources are available. • Continuously monitor performance.
P2 Impact of Management Commitment The full participation of upper management in an EMS and the development of an environmental policy helps to institutionalize the concept of pollution prevention within an organization. It also insures that adequate resources will be made available. Finally, when upper management is involved in setting environmental goals and monitoring performance the entire organization is held accountable for achieving results and maintaining an effective EMS.
Total Quality Management • Teams familiar with the organization’s operations conduct a systematic analysis to identify and characterize those activities (aspects) that impact the environment. • The evaluation should include a review of the resources consumed and the environmental impacts associated with the operation (e.g. pollution of air, water or soil). • Assessment tools are used to identify and evaluate activities that have a significant impact on the environment.
Total Quality Management (Continued) • Once an environmental aspects and impacts analysis has been completed programs and procedures are developed to minimize any significant environmental impacts. • The process is ongoing and is designed to drive continuous improvement. • Periodic reassessment are needed to insure that changes have not occurred that substantially affect the environmental impacts of your operations.
P2 Impact of Total Quality Management The TQM process forces an organization to systematically assess the environmental impacts of all aspects of their operation. By carefully evaluating what is happening, how it happens, and what the impacts are, an organization can develop programs to reduce or eliminate any significant environmental impacts. This in-depth analysis technique frequently leads to the identification of pollution prevention opportunities that may have otherwise gone unnoticed.
Continual Improvement • Establishing a philosophy of continual improvement encourages members of your organization to strive for ever better environmental performance. • Requires that monitoring and measurement systems be developed to track environmental performance and provide a basis for future comparison. • Small but continuing improvements in environmental performance can have a large cumulative effect.
P2 Impact of Continual Improvement The philosophy of continual improvement discourages organizations from becoming complacent with existing pollution prevention programs (regardless of their success) by challenging them to do more. This often leads to innovative and revolutionary pollution prevention programs. The philosophy also encourages organizations to begin doing what they can (to reduce or prevent pollution) when they can.
Employee Awareness and Involvement • Insure that employees understand their roles and responsibilities under the environmental management system. It’s a team effort and everyone’s participation is necessary for success. • Ensure that your employees are provided with the training needed to carry out their environmental responsibilities. • Establish procedures for internal and external communications of environmental management issues.
P2 Impact of Employee Awareness and Involvement Front line employees are typically the most familiar with the day to day operations of a facility and are often the first to recognize pollution prevention opportunities. Soliciting employee participation and training them in the principles of P2 and waste minimization can lead to the development of significant pollution prevention projects. It is also important the everyone within the organization is aware of and complying with established P2 programs.
Checking and Corrective Action • An EMS includes provisions for periodic audits. • Audits are conducted to evaluate the success of the system and insure that procedures are being followed. • Any deficiencies that are found are documented and a corrective action plan developed to insure the situation is corrected.
P2 Impact of Checking and Corrective Action Periodic audits help insure that you are properly implementing the programs and procedures outlined in your EMS. Audits help you to identify and correct system deficiencies that may be short-circuiting your pollution prevention efforts.
EMS and Pollution Prevention A Case Study • Motorola’s EMS required that all wastes be identified, characterized, and quantified as well as all waste minimization activities. This was done in an order to identify pollution prevention opportunities. • A cross-functional team was formed to review packaging use and management. • The team found a system that was poorly regulated and resulted in excessive waste.
Front/ Back Housings & Holsters (High Impact Polystyrene) Packaging for 100 pagers (parts & finished product) Product Packaging (HDPE) Parts Assembled into New Pagers Pack the product into new trays & carton - ship to customer Empty Trays Returned to Supplier Customer recycles or disposes of trays (no reuse) Misdirected trays sent for disposal: • Inefficient reuse system • No accountability • No part numbers on trays
Pollution Prevention Breakthroughs • The team realized the dimensions of our finished product were the same as the incoming parts (housings). • A multi-use tray was developed that would be used to ship parts into the factory and then reused to ship the finished product to our customers. This eliminated the need for separate product packaging. • A database was created to track tray usage and a system developed for customers to return empty trays for reuse at no cost to them. • An audit process was developed to track the performance of the system and correct deficiencies.
Assembly Reusable Tray - 100% Post Consumer HDPE Product to customer Parts from supplier All trays were issued part numbers and a database was developed to track tray movements and inventory.
Revised Packaging for 100 Pagers (parts & finished product) Front housing trays Back housing trays Holster trays Packaging reused to ship product to customers Trays reused to ship Finished product. Trays returned to supplier to be reloaded with parts. Combined with holster trays System developed for customers to return trays for reuse at no cost. Pack the product into carton and ship
Pollution Prevention Results • Reuse of housing trays to ship product eliminated the need for separate product packaging. • Eliminated (prevented) over 100 tons of waste annually. • Encouraged recycling by switching packaging from poorly recycled HIPS to HDPE. • The closed loop system allowed customers to return tray for reuse. • Project recognized as a Waste Wi$e Innovation of the Month by EPA.
EMS P2 Concepts Demonstrated The project was ultimately successful because it incorporated the following EMS concepts • Top Management Commitment • Total Quality Management • Continual Improvement • Employee Awareness and Involvement • Checking and Corrective actions
Conclusions The implementation of an Environmental Management System can led to the discovery of significant pollution prevention opportunities and the development of effective pollution prevention systems.
