More information : www.emas-easy.eu

Developed from Eco-Mapping©, EMASeasy© has been rolled out across Europe by the Belgian consultancy, Eco-Conseil Entreprise. Identified by the European Commission as one of several tools it has chosen to employ to promote greater compliance in SMEs, EMASEasy seeks to promote clustering to reduce consultancy costs, to offer mentoring opportunities and to promote shorter certification/ verification audit times. In system terms, it provides templates for key environmental management system documents, which provide comprehensive coverage for the requirements of ISO 14001, section 4. These are simple to use and, when consolidated, provide the requisite audit trail for a certification to ISO 14001, or the information necessary to populate the environmental report for an EMAS registration. The European experience suggests that small and micro-businesses are clustering happily and winning registration to ISO 14001 or EMAS in roughly equal proportions. Audit times for the smallest are being reduced comfortably to one day!

 

Engagement by small and micro-businesses in managing the prevention of pollution and complying with environmental regulation is something, which has frustrated governments, standards bodies and other stakeholders around the globe. The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) has conducted three global reviews in the last decade to examine the uptake of ISO 14001 by SMEs without reaching any satisfactory conclusions. The response to this challenge from most SME representative groups is that the process of undertaking and environmental management system is too onerous and too costly.

 

Recognising the two most significant challenges – cost and lack of the appropriate human resource – the author of EMASeasy, Heinz-Werner Engel, has set out to provide a process through which small and micro-businesses can educate and involve their staff in their environmental issues, keep the bureaucracy of the process to a minimum, utilise support from and offer support to other partners in any cluster and win certification to ISO 14001 or registration to EMAS in a short and manageable time frame. The EMASEasy process takes the theme of ’10 people, 10 pages, 10 days’ – indicative of the idea of clustering, of the limited bureaucracy and the commitment of the organisation to managing the implementation.

 

The EMASeasy process starts (PLAN) with an eco-map, prepared for seven areas of the site or organisational activity which are potential sources of pollution or non-compliance – the urban location, issues surrounding any emissions to air, soil and water, waste production, energy consumption and operational risk (abnormal circumstances). Eco-mapping requires a map of the local area (or a Google World photograph!) and a map or maps of the shop floor. Using these maps, any member of staff, with minimal guidance, can identify issues, which may contribute to poor environmental performance, allocating to them degrees of priority – an issue to be monitored or studied or an issue which may need some urgent attention or that needs to be stopped immediately.  Issues may range from the frequency with which vehicles need to visit the site, lighting and noise which might interfere with neighbouring activities, through waste storage and disposal, to dripping taps and poor water management and needless use of energy – lots or wasted heat and necessary lighting.

 

There is also provision on the Eco-map for the identification of relevant environmental legislation, the identification of performance indicators and, subsequently, the environmental programme with objectives and targets, together with any identifiable training needs.

 

In parallel with the development of the eco-mapping information, an opinion may be taken from each employee as to the organisation’s performance on environmental matters using the EMASeasy ‘environmental weathermap’. Using a series of thoughtfully compiled questions about the site or organisation’s environmental performance, a series of five weather symbols indicating a range of weather from very cloudy (poor performance) to very sunny (good performance) can be selected by the employee to offer a spontaneous indication of their perception of performance. A series of completed weather maps can be developed into ratings of each performance area, which can be taken into consideration at a later stage.

 

The final phases of the initial EMASeasy assessment is the consolidation of the ‘material flows and resource use’ information, identifying the consumption of energy and water, raw materials and other products complemented by the dispersion of finished product, waster water and solid water and other materials for which there is no further use.

 

On completion of the eco-mapping phase, the compilation of the EMASeasy environmental management system starts. This is facilitated by the consolidation of the information gather on the eco-maps into the FLIPO (flows, legislation, impacts, practices and (weathermap) opinions) sheet, FLIPO enables the organisation to attribute priorities (Setting Priorities sheet) for the environmental management system (EMS) and the allocation of objectives and targets to the elements of the environmental programme.

 

At this stage, responsibilities for managing targets and objectives start to evolve and EMASeasy’s ‘Responsibilities Matrix’ is helpful in identifying those who have immediate responsibility for elements of the EMS, where they may be delegated certain responsibilities, or where they may only need to be made aware of performance requirements, but have no immediate responsibilities for action. It is likely that, if not before, the organisation’s environmental policy will be published at this stage.

 

The organisation’s environmental manual is largely already templated in the EMASeasy guidance, with statements compliant with the requirements identified in section 4 of ISO 14001:2002. These statements all refer to the expectations identified from the various elements of EMASeasy.

 

At this (DO) stage, Operational Control (ISO 14001, 4.4.6) and Emergency Situations (ISO 14001, 4.4.7) need to be addressed with the employees. This is achieved through the use of an ‘identity card’, which shows a picture of the employee, the duties assigned to him and his ‘Quickcheck’ responsibilities. ‘Quickcheck’ is the tool for internal control and regular evaluation. Apart from identifying the relevant operational controls, it provides information on the performance targets or parameters within which his/her work should be managed and offers the employee himself a route into the internal auditing process for corrective or preventive action that he/she might think necessary in the context of their day-to-day performance.

 

An Eco Log Book is provided with the templates to provide the record for any environmentally significant event, confirmation of any training undertaken and the communication of any letters, instructions or reports that are relevant to the maintenance of the EMS.

 

The internal audit process (CHECK) is prompted and maintained using the ‘Control Panel’. This identifies the performance measurement indicators and the progress towards annual targets and objectives; social indicators; evidence of elements of the EMS audited in each quarter and contractual arrangements with outside suppliers. This is the document which, together with relevant elements of the ‘Quickcheck’ returns, provide the material for consideration at the management review – at least an annual event and, possibly, more frequent. Any management decision resulting in the implementation of corrective and preventive measures undertaken – the evidence for ‘continual improvement’ – is recorded on the ‘Control Panel’.

 

At this stage, having demonstrated the effectiveness of its EMS and evidence of a management review offering opportunities for continual improvement, a company is also able to complete the final step – that of completing an environmental statement for verification and publication in accordance with the Eco-management and Audit Scheme.

 

The delivery of support to the clusters is through accredited consultants who have completed a formal ‘training of consultants’ (ToC) programme facilitated by Eco-conseil’s dedicated band of trainers.

 

With the threat of an ISO standard – ISO 14005 – offering less effective guidance on the phased implementation of an EMS conforming to the requirements of ISO 14001 likely to render BS 8555 obsolete within 12-18 months, the case for considering EMASeasy as an alternative tool to provide speed and simplicity with rigour and reduced costs for certification audits is becoming increasingly compelling.