Environmental management systems
Environmental management systems
An environmental management system allows organisations to systematically develop their operations to be more environmentally sustainable.
Environmental management systems
An environmental management system consists of practices, policies, processes and resources that help an organisation to systematically manage and reduce their environmental impacts. It aims to increase the efficiency of resource use, such as energy and raw material consumption, which reduces environmental load and often cuts costs, too.
Well-known environmental management systems
01
The ISO 14001 standard
ISO 14001 is an international standard that defines the requirements for establishing and maintaining an environmental management system. Due to its flexible structure, an environmental management system built on the ISO 14001 standard suits many types of companies. As a well-known standard with certification based on thorough auditing, it is a reliable way to demonstrate a company's environmental responsibility to stakeholders.
02
Green Office
The Green Office standard is an environmental management system developed by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and specifically designed for offices. The Green Office system helps organisations manage resource consumption, reduce energy consumption and waste as well as increase environmental awareness among employees.
How is an environmental management system built?
01
Quality policy
A quality policy outlines what the company wishes to achieve with the environmental management system. It considers the company's values and defines general goals. The goal may be, for example, to reduce energy consumption.
02
Surveys
After drafting the quality policy, the company's operations are examined from an environmental perspective. The first look is into what activities are causing environmental impacts. After this, it is time to select a few of the most significant causes of environmental impact that are easy to influence.
03
Determining the environmental impacts and actions
It is important to establish the baseline of the causes of impact before defining the target level for e.g. emissions, energy consumption or waste. The means of achieving the objectives are also determined.
04
Monitoring and development
One of the most important tasks of an environmental management system is to enable continuous development of operations. When the first goals are achieved, new causes of environmental impact are chosen, and new goals and action plans are created for them.
Contact our experts
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Saana Pitkänen
Saana works as the Quality Manager at Envineer Oy. In project work, her areas of expertise include various environmental studies related to, for example, noise, air quality and contaminated soils, as well as environmental permit applications.
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Janne Nuutinen
Janne’s expertise includes a wide range of environmental studies and modelling, including work related to noise, air quality, and emission measurements. Janne also has extensive experience with environmental permit applications.
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Toni Uusimäki
Toni has experience particularly in environmental impact assessment projects related to industry and mining, in preparing environmental permit applications, and in conducting the related supplementary studies.