Environmental Management
Environmental management is a process that industries, companies, and individuals undertake to regulate and protect the health of the natural world. In most cases, it does not actually involve managing the environment itself, but rather is the process of taking steps and promoting behaviours that will have a positive impact on how environmental resources are used and protected. Organizations engage in environmental management for a couple of different reasons, but caring for the natural world, following local laws and rules about conservation, and saving money are usually near the top of most lists. Management plans look different in different industries, but all aim for roughly the same goals.
Most management plans roughly follow a “plan, do, check” model.
- The first step, planning, requires the organization to set out specific goals, like reducing wastewater, implementing new standards for toxin disposal, or better managing erosion. Once an end-point has been identified, leaders need to come up with a systematic way of bringing the entire organization into compliance.
- Next, the company needs to actually take steps to implement the processes laid out in the planning stage. This is the “do” aspect, and it can be harder than it sounds.
- Action typically requires a coordinated effort that must be put into place over several weeks or months; more often than not, this step is ongoing, and cannot easily be “checked off” a list.
Definition of Environment management
- It’s an attempt to control human impact on and interaction with the environment in order to preserve natural resources
- Environmental management focuses on the improvement of human welfare for present and future generations.
- Administrative functions that develop, implement, and monitor the environmental policy of an organization.
Reasons to study Environment and Business at Leeds
- Research-led teaching across the breadth of our environment and business disciplines from specialists in their field
- Major investments in our teaching facilities, including new computer clusters for our students
- Flexible study pathways that accommodate your personal interests in areas including business governance, management and natural science
- On our excellent fieldwork programme, the school covers the costs of accommodation and travel for all of your compulsory field classes and most of the cost of optional trips and project work
- A wide range of options includes modules in the Business School and the School of Law, and the opportunity to undertake a major environmental enterprise project
Trends in Environmental Management
- Impact Assessment and Planning (IAP) - Assessing environmental and social impacts prior to setting up operations and obtaining environmental approval from the authorities is almost mandatory in most project categories. IAP assessments may be required not only for newly constructed facilities, but also for new operations that will be housed in an existing building.
- Environmental Liability and Clean-up - Foreign investment has resulted in heightened scrutiny of current and historic environmental liabilities associated with property transactions in India.
- Sustainability and Regulatory Compliance - The increasing desire of Indian companies to meet world class standards has caused established companies in India to take on sustainability initiatives as a means of improving their global brand and reputation.
- Climate Change - While India still lags the West in coming up with concrete regulations based on the development versus environment debate, there is an increasing awareness in India that climate change is not about scoring points but about the existence of entire communities inside and outside of India.
Definitions of Sustainable Development
- Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
- When human beings strive for enhanced life conditions without diminishing the meaning of life itself – namely our children's future - we call this development sustainable.
- Sustainable development is often thought to have three components: environment, society, and economy. The well-being of these three areas is intertwined, not separate.
- Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
So, is it all just about the environment?
Living within our environmental limits is one of the central principles of sustainable development. One implication of not doing so is climate change. But the focus of sustainable development is far broader than just the environment. It's also about ensuring a strong, healthy and just society. This means meeting the diverse needs of all people in existing and future communities, promoting personal wellbeing, social cohesion and inclusion, and creating equal opportunity.
Concept of Sustainable Development
The concept of sustainable development can be interpreted in many different ways, but at its core is an approach to development that looks to balance different, and often competing, needs against an awareness of the environmental, social and economic limitations we face as a society. All too often, development is driven by one particular need, without fully considering the wider or future impacts. We are already seeing the damage this kind of approach can cause, from large-scale financial crises caused by irresponsible banking, to changes in global climate resulting from our dependence on fossil fuel-based energy sources. The longer we pursue unsustainable development, the more frequent and severe its consequences are likely to become, which is why we need to take action now. Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
It contains within it two key concepts:
- The concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and
- The idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs.
The concept of sustainable development has in the past most often been broken out into three constituent parts:
- Environmental sustainability
- Economic sustainability
- Socio-political sustainability.
More recently, it has been suggested that a more consistent analytical breakdown is to distinguish four domains of economic, ecological, political and cultural sustainability.
Sustainable development constantly seeks to achieve social and economic progress in ways that will not exhaust the earth’s finite natural resources. The needs of the world today are real and immediate, yet it’s necessary to develop ways to meet these needs that do not disregard the future. The capacity of our ecosystem is not limitless, meaning that future generations may not be able to meet their needs the way we are able to now.
Some of the more common examples of sustainable development practices are
- Solar and wind energy. Energy from these resources is limitless, meaning we have the ability to eliminate dependence on non-renewable power sources by harnessing power from renewable resources.
- Sustainable construction. Homes, offices and other structures that incorporate recycled and renewable resources will be more energy efficient and stand the test of time.
- Crop rotation. Many farmers and gardeners are using this method as a chemical free way to reduce diseases in the soil and increase growth potential of their crops.
- Water fixtures. Water conservation is critical to sustainable development, and more and more products are available that use less water in the home, such as showers, toilets, dishwashers and laundry systems.
If sustainable development focuses on the future, does that mean we lose out now?
Not necessarily. Sustainable development is about finding better ways of doing things, both for the future and the present. We might need to change the way we work and live now, but this doesn't mean our quality of life will be reduced. A sustainable development approach can bring many benefits in the short to medium term, for example:
- Savings - As a result of SDC scrutiny, government has saved over £60m by improving efficiency across its estate.
- Health & Transport - Instead of driving, switching to walking or cycling for short journeys will save you money, improve your health and is often just as quick and convenient.
How does sustainable development affect me?
The way we approach development affects everyone. The impacts of our decisions as a society have very real consequences for people's lives. Poor planning of communities, for example, reduces the quality of life for the people who live in them. (Relying on imports rather than growing food locally puts the UK at risk of food shortages.)
Sustainable development provides an approach to making better decisions on the issues that affect all of our lives. By incorporating health plans into the planning of new communities, for instance, we can ensure that residents have easy access to healthcare and leisure facilities. (By encouraging more sustainable food supply chains, we can ensure the UK has enough food for the long-term future.)
The Limits to Growth: The Limits to Growth is a 1972 book about the computer modeling of exponential economic and population
growth with finite resource supplies. Funded by the Volkswagen Foundation and commissioned by the Club of Rome it
was first presented at the St. Gallen Symposium.
Five variables were examined in the original model. These variables are:
World population
Industrialization
Pollution
Food production
Resource depletion.
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