Policy controlled environmental management work
The methodology is intended to be used in the existing environmental
management work and will therefore theoretically not consume any additional
resources. The implementation phase will however demand time resources for
understanding and settling of the theories and the vocabulary. The quality
assured information management might also need to be established in case it does
not fulfill the demands.
The user of the methodology should be aware of the limitations. The issues that
were identified in the project are listed below:
- The effort of collecting new data is bound to lead to existing data
being overused and applied for cases for which they are not suitable. It is
important that the data user understands the limitations of available data,
and take responsibility not to overuse data.
- Further support for local impact assessment needs to be developed; a
possible solution can be to use the
PHASES methodology for this.
- There is a risk that environmental impacts are only searched for “under
the light of the lamp” and that the real environmental problems are not
detected. There is a need to integrate new knowledge (finding more connections
between aspects and indicators) and use experiences gained from practical
work.
The methodology was developed in the project “Policy controlled environmental
management work” by IMI and six participating
companies; ABB, Cementa, Duni, SCA, Stora Enso and Volvo Car Corporation. The
methodology has been integrated in practical work to various extents. The
company representatives have documented the experiences from the companies
(Appendix II in the
report).
A software prototype tool that supports the methodology was developed for
educational purposes. The participating companies have shown great interest in
the development of a commercial tool that can be used in the industry. However,
a commercial tool does not exist to date.
Business value
Using this strategy will improved controllability of the environmental
management system at companies as well as benefit the management and other
decision makers in industrial companies as it will facilitate the decisions by
providing all information needed to make them.
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