As you have started reading this blog, it can be easily assumed that you are looking for an environmental management system. That’s great! When you are looking for an EMS, then you may have heard of Total Quality Management System or TQM. In order to ensure the efficiency of your EMS, your organization may need to apply certain TQM principles to its environmental operations and functions.
A super-active EMS must be based on TQM concepts. To enhance environmental management performance, you should focus on what things happen and why they are happening. Gradually, the systematic identification of the existing deficiencies and taking accurate corrective actions can help you better the environmental performance of your organization.
Listed below are a few key concepts for efficient Environmental Management Systems.
- Top Management Commitment
The top management should be committed to applying the TQM principles to the environmental tasks and offering ample resources required for the tasks. If you want to better the environmental performance and preserve environmental sustainability, you must make your top management to discuss with all the employees about the vitality of:
- Prioritizing the environmental management system (considering effective environmental management as fundamental to the existence of the organization)
- Incorporating the environmental management across the organization ( considering the environment as part of the products/services and processes along with other activities)
- Regarding the problems as opportunities ( Identification of the problems and determining the root causes along with the solutions)
- Continual Improvement
Nothing is perfect, neither a business nor a human being. That’s why most of the ISO standards attach great importance to continual improvement. This concept of continual improvement identifies possible environmental risks. A perfect business management system integrated with EMS will be able to address and mitigate these risks. A continuous assessment will enable the organization to be aware of their loopholes so that whenever a loophole or gap takes place, the organization can take proper action and ensure continual improvement.
Continual improvement is critical for retaining the validation of the ISO 14001 standard as well. It helps an organization rectifies the flaws that can lead them to non-conformity and you know very well what non-conformity can do to your organization. It may provoke the auditors to discard the validation of your ISO 14001 certification.
- Flexibility
An effective EMS will always be dynamic so that your organization can quickly adapt to a rapidly changing environment. That’s why you need to keep your EMS simple and flexible. The employees should find it easy to use. The main thing is you need to make you EMS easily understandable to your employees and managers. Always remember that a simple system always encourages the employees and save their time. If you implement an EMS this is complex and takes hours to be operated, then it would be difficult for you to enhance the environmental performance quickly.
- Compatibility with the Work Culture
You must consider one thing- the approach to Environmental Management Systems and the work culture should be compatible with each other. Some organizations opt for one of these choices-
- Customizing the EMS as per the work culture
- Modifying the culture to make it compatible with the EMS approach
In this context, it is important to note that changing an organization’s culture is a long-term process. Considering this compatibility issue, you must make sure the EMS is meeting your organizational requirements.
- Employee Awareness and Involvement
When you will start designing and implementing the EMS, you will encounter roadblocks. In order to overcome the potential roadblocks, it is important for you to make sure that each of your employees and managers understands why they need an active EMS and how they can contribute to the better performance of the EMS.
These are the concepts that can help you establish and maintain an effective EMS