- What Is Environmentalism?
- Check National Environmental Legislation
- How Can I Make My Business Environmentally Friendly?
- Simple Environmental Protection Measures
- What is ISO14001?
- Conclusions
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What is environmentalism?, we can define environmentalism as taking measures to protect your natural environment - air, land and sea.
The emergence of environmentalism grew from the 1960's as being the vogue. In the 1970's, it was regarded a being a nice thought but not economically practical.
It was not until environmental issues gained political momentum during the 1980's that we saw business and the general public accept that we all need to become kinder to the environment. The result saw a decline in the price of environmentally friendly products.
Being an environmentally friendly business is now seen as being essential part of modern business practice. Customers, governments, competitors, suppliers and the world at large, will all want to make sure your business can supply them with environmentally friendly products.
CHECK NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION
The first step in developing a business environmental strategy is to check what you national environment protection legislation is. Make sure you are aware of what the environmental waste policies and material handling laws regarding your business.
This will give you an indication what needs to be done as regards your business. If your business is based in Europe, please also refer to European Union legislation.
HOW CAN I MAKE MY BUSINESS ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY?
The most obvious way to make your business appear environmentally friendly to the world at large would be to make strong in-roads to environmentally friendly practices within your business from top to bottom. From improving your environmental practices you would then look to applying for national and international awards.
SIMPLE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION MEASURES
No matter what type of business you are in, there are some simple measures we can all take:
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Make sure that all dangerous substances are clearly identified and that employees are warned to use adequate protection. It is advisable to keep such substances under locked storage, away from the main area of business.
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Check with environmental consultants to see if you need to install any special filtration systems, to dissolve or remove substances such as oil, before they reach normal drainage systems. If you don't have these systems in place you could be fined!.
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Noise pollution, ensure that any noisy machinery is properly insulated.
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Take a strong hard look at any production systems that you may have in your business and introduce measures to reduce the scrap levels in your business.
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Ensure all air extraction and ventilation units are properly maintained.
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Promote energy efficiency in the work place, put posters up urging employees to switch water taps off when not in use; switch off computers, lights, photocopiers when they leave work at the end of the day, it also costs your business thousands each year!.
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Install energy saving systems in your business these may include putting timers on air conditioning units, installing double glazed windows, this may seem expensive but by having such measures you business will actually save thousands!.
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Promote employees to start using rechargeable batteries (if they use them). Try to get employees to use both sides of paper and not simply write on one side.
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Try to get employees to open windows in the hot weather seasons and not to simply to switch on the air conditioning.
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Install waste recycling bins in your workplace, these days there are external companies that will not charge you for removing waste such as paper and aluminum cans.
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Try and influence others, promote environmental protectionism with customers offer them environment friendly products.
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Get suppliers to supply you with products that are not harmful, for example use recycled newspapers, use un-leaded petrol, recycled printer cartridges/toners, etc.
Essentially ISO14001, is a environmental management systems standard which is awarded by the International Standards Organisation (ISO). It is a prestigious benchmark awarded to companies that meet the requirements.
ISO14001 is not simply about making sure your business is compliant with current environmental legislation, it also covers preventative measures, continual improvement processes, and disclosure of information.
Get your business on track with your national environmental legislation first before you attempt to aim for this award.
- Check any environmental legislation that might exist.
- Depending on the size, type and scope of your business use consultants to develop a structured environmental strategy.
- A simple plan would be to have a environmental representative for each of your business sites, this could well be a employee, who looks after environmental issues as a part of his job function, get the individual properly trained.
- Try to continually monitor your business environmental impact - Find out areas for improvement and then set targets to get those areas corrected.
- Ensure that all environmental protection matters are communicated to your employees, it's no good developing a strategy if no one knows or understands it!.
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