Environmental Management Systems and Assessment Tools  

 

Environmental Management System Tool

Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Australian Government, Market: Australia, Year: Unknown

An Environmental Management System (EMS) is a structured system or management tool which, once implemented, helps an organisation to identify the environmental impacts resulting from its business activities and to improve its environmental performance. An Environmental Management System will work more effectively if it is designed to operate in line with an organisation’s existing systems and processes, such as the planning cycle, the setting of targets and improvement programs, corrective and preventive action and management review. Download Here

 
 

10 Steps on the Sustainable Event Pathway

Sustainable Event Management: A Practical Guide, Market: Global, Year: 2015

Like any management or business plan, when managing the sustainability impacts and opportunities related to your event, you’ll need to have a vision and a pathway to action. The following steps will help you to establish a framework to get you where you want to be… Read more

 

 
Headlines of a Sustainable Lifestyle

Business in the Community Market: UK, Year: 2014

For 9 billion people to have access to a good quality of life in 2050, we need to change what citizens perceive as high quality living, as well as changing products, services and business models. High quality lives need a thriving resilient economy that works in the context of finite resources and fragile eco-systems, and where personal wellbeing is measured as much in life satisfaction as it is on finances and material wealth. The Headlines provides a set of indications for what a high quality, sustainable lifestyle could look like in 2050.

   
Driving Performance and Transparency in Green Building Products

UL Environment, Inc Market: Global, Year: 2014

In just a few short years, the use of environmentally preferable products and materials has become an essential element in the development and construction of new commercial and residential building projects. However, questions remain among manufacturers and buyers about just how to evaluate and compare the lifecycle-based environmental profiles of similar building products and materials. Various mechanisms, from eco-labels and environmental product certifications to lifecycle assessments (LCAs) and environmental product declarations (EPDs), are available and act as an important part of a larger “toolkit.” This white paper provides an overview of the various ways in which building product manufacturers can demonstrate compliance with green building certification programs and codes, and how to best utilize each available mechanism in this toolkit.

 
Verifying Environmental Sustainability in the Electronics Marketplace

Source: UL Environment, Inc Market: Global, Year: 2014

Selecting an appropriate strategy for verifying product environmental sustainability has become an increasingly complicated process for manufacturers in the electronics marketplace. This UL white paper provides details on the sustainability verification options available to electronics manufacturers.

 

 
Arctic Biodiversity Assessment Report for Policy Makers

Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) Market: Global Year: 2013

This report contains the best available science and informed by traditional ecological knowledge on the status and trends of Arctic biodiversity and accompanying policy recommendations. To download the report, key findings, photos and policy recommendations refer www.arcticbiodiversity.is

 

 
Eco4Biz: Ecosystem services and biodiversity tools to support business decision-making

World Business Council for Sustainable Development Market: Global, Year: 2013

Companies have well-developed toolkits for many tasks they face. Yet some challenges – like how to measure and value ecosystem services and biodiversity – are still quite novel. Tools to tackle these are often unfamiliar and still being developed. So this guide is to help companies sift through an emerging family of tools to help them assess and ultimately manage their impacts and dependencies on natural capital. It will help you be better-informed during tough conversations around how to practically account for – and report on – natural capital in a consistent way and when assessing and managing your ecosystem impacts and dependencies, in order to ultimately lower risk, and be more competitive over time.Eco4Biz: Ecosystem services and biodiversity tools to support business decision-making

 

 
EcoSystems and Business Training

World Business Council for Sustainable Development Market: Global, Year: 2013

The WBCSD has developed a FREE Business Ecosystems Training (BET) course to increase knowledge and understanding of the links between ecosystems and business.BET is, in principle, a linear training program, i.e. the audience needs to follow each module one after the other. However, the modules are developed in such a way to allow them to be used individually if necessary. For full details refer http://www.wbcsd.org/bet.aspx

 

 
How Product LCA empowers CSO’s

PE INTERNATIONAL Market: Global, Year: 2013

Corporate sustainability cannot rely for long on quick win projects such as energy efficiency, recycling or policy setting. Leading firms move beyond the enterprise view to take a product life cycle approach and the challenges that this presents are driving sustainability teams to work closely with non-sustainability colleagues. The decisions that determine product sustainability are made by R&D, product design, procurement, marketing and sales teams. This report helps Chief Sustainability Officers (CSOs), VPs of Environment and their colleagues to understand how product life cycle assessment (LCA) software can support different functions to incorporate sustainability considerations into their processes.

How Product LCA empowers CSOs

 

 

The Business Sustainability Roadmap

DERM. Market: Australia, Year: 2009

The Business Sustainability Roadmap is a strategy map which provides a contextual framework for businesses serious about taking up the challenges and opportunities of sustainable development. For each Destination on the Roadmap there are Milestones by which businesses can check their systems and practices. It also helps businesses to employ tools such as environmental management systems,

cleaner production, environmental auditing, life-cycle assessment and environmental accounting. These tools can be applied to reduce risk, reduce costs, identify opportunities and enhance business reputation. business_sustainability_roadmap.pdf

 

Environmental Assessment using Life Cycle Assessment, Environmental Risk Assessment, Life Cycle Cost and Eco-efficiency.

DANTES and Chalmers University of Technology Market: Global, Year: 2005

Environmental assessment is a systematic process designed to identify, analyze and evaluate the environmental effects of a product or an activity. The aim of the process is to identify any foreseeable adverse impacts throughout the life cycle of a product. Environmental Assessment allows effective integration of environmental considerations and public concerns into decision-making. Tools and Case Studies can be found here.

 

Environmental Management Systems: An Implementation Guide for Small and Medium-Sized Organizations

NSF International. Market: Global, Year: 2002

The authors of this report have put together a well-organized guide that should appeal to smaller organizations looking to develop environmental management systems. It discusses the benefits of EMS and offers advice for the designing and building processes. Case studies of Milan Screw Company and Hach Company provide helpful lessons learned. The report is a revision of the 1996 guide of the same title.