Developing Environmental Management Systems Based on ISO 14000 Principles for Companies in the Metals Industries: Why and How

摘要

This paper is directed to those in the metals industries concerned with improving their management processes and systems for complying with their company's environmental policy including compliance with environmental regulations. The purposes of this paper are to examine why companies in the metals industries may wish to develop an environmental management system (EMS) based on ISO 14000 principles, to discuss our approach to developing such an EMS including specific examples, and to offer practical guidance about the development and implementation of such systems. Traditional approaches to complying with a company's environmental policies including its environmental regulations do not adequately meet the needs of companies in the metals industries in today's environment of increasing compliance requirements, increasing monitoring, increasing record keeping and reporting, increasing certification of compliance status, and increasing consequences of being out of compliance- both personally and for the company. We urge companies in the metals industries to adopt a new approach to complying with the company's environmental policies through development and implementation of an environmental management system that incorporates many of the principles in the ISO 14001 Standard.