Environmental Preparedness

摘要

Managing our focus on those issues that affect us and our environment requires clear intention, intelligent methods, and committed actions. According to ISO 14000 standards, environment is defined as "surroundings in which an organization operates, including air, water, land, natural resources, flora, fauna, humans, and their interrelation." Preparedness may be defined as maintaining a state of readiness for dealing with incidents and potential emergency situations. Emergency Preparedness, as an element of health and safety, is a widely accepted business practice that protects the well being of employees, the assets of the company and the community. Measuring the value of avoided costs for injuries, insurance and liability may be impossible to accurately measure. According to Dr. W Edwards Deming, "the magnitudes of the most important losses from action or inaction by management are unknowable. We must nevertheless learn how to manage these losses. ..It is wrong to suppose that if you can't measure it, you can't manage it - a costly myth." A system must have an aim. A system must be managed. Management of a system therefore requires knowledge of the interrelationships between all the components within the system... Useful emergency preparedness requires an understanding of the interactions of numerous sub-systems within the larger confining environmental system. People populate many of the sub-systems. Management's job is to predict and to prepare the subsystems to operate successfully to minimize the frequency and severity of emergencies as well as to recognize and handle emergencies that do occur. This presentation will explore means by which "Environmental Preparedness" can contribute to the overall health of all organizations rather than simply being considered as a regulatory requirement or necessary evil.