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Phil Rooney, Lincoln-Lancaster
County Health Department offers this summary of benefits: Protecting the environment by coming into compliance or, ideally, going beyond
compliance reduces waste and reduces costs and inefficiencies. It preserves natural
resources and reduces the cost of finding new and more resources. It makes greater use of
materials already purchased and reduces purchasing costs. It makes for cleaner emissions
and reduces the severity of spills, leaks, and other accidents. Reducing these events
reduces permitting costs, remediation costs, worker comp costs, insurance costs, law suit
costs and fines, and many other costs and fees. Protecting the environment involves
purchasing smaller amounts of materials or purchasing less toxic materials. These
purchasing choices reduce OSHA reporting and record-keeping requirements and costs. These
choices improve worker safety and morale, leading to more productive workers. Purchasing
less hazardous materials reduces the need for and the costs associated with the need for
special equipment, special training, and specially designed storage areas. These
purchasing practices also reduce the cost of disposal. Protecting the environment by going
beyond compiance helps keep regulators and inspectors out of the plant. |
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Rosanne Harding of Apple
Computer reports the following benefits from ISO 14001 registration: |
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All environmental policies and procedures are
now in a consistent format. |
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All documents are now more accessible to
employees so compliance has improved. |
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Regularly scheduled EMS reviews are ensuring
both legal and ethical obligations are met in a timely fashion. |
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Increased Profits
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Implementing ISO 14001 today can provide a basis
for implementing the other standards in the ISO 14000 series. This incremental approach
can reduce overall costs to implement ISO 14000 because of lessons learned in each phase. |
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The quantity of materials and energy required
for manufacturing a product may be reduced, thereby reducing the cost of the product,
material handling costs, and waste disposal costs. |
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Some companies have found that it costs more to
run a compliance-driven system than an EMS. |
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An EMS can help reduce incidents of pollution
and the associated expense of recovery. |
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Recycling manufacturing waste and unused inputs
could increase revenues. Recycling need not be within the same facility, but with another
one that can use the waste as input to their production. ISO 14000 |
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Employee health and safety can be improved,
thereby improving productivity, decreasing sick days, and reducing insurable risk. |
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Insurance claims may be reduced, thus reducing
the costs of coverage and settlements. |
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Meeting the standards of different countries can
be expensive. ISO 14000 can reduce this effort by providing one standard. |
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Operations (return to top) |
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The EMS standards can define "best
practices" and create a foundation for the next level of improvement. |
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An EMS integrated with all other business
systems improves management's ability to understand what is going on in their
organization, determine the effect on the company, and provide leadership. |
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The standards build consensus throughout the
world that a common terminology for environmental management systems is needed. A common
terminology for all locations of a multinational organization will increase efficiency of
communication and improve results. |
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An EMS can identify instances of redundancy in
day-to-day efforts for regulatory compliance. These can be eliminated, thus making the
organization more efficient. |
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An EMS includes procedures and metrics for
measuring and evaluating wastes and the costs of environmental emissions. This information
can help organizations implement the best practices and determine their results. |
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The environmental staff can help employees and
management understand and use environmental systems to improve organizational performance
and benefits. |
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A management system can lead to more reliable
and predictable environmental performance which can reduce or limit the severity of
incidents. |
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ISO 14000 requires a common terminology which
improves the communication of goals, procedures, impacts, and solutions. Improved
communications can mean greater efficiency in decision making. For example, the severity
of an environmental impact can increase with time, so an efficient notification system can
reduce the time it takes to respond, and thus the impact, risk and liability to the
organization. |
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ISO 14000 provides feedback on the operations of
the organization that can be used for daily action and to determine the appropriateness of
pollution prevention strategies. |
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Problems that could be expensive to resolve and
damaging to the environment can be identified earlier. Early management awareness of
problems would offer the best opportunity for efficient resolution. |
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Management awareness of environmental impacts
provides the opportunity for planning to reduce negative impacts. |
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As ISO 14000 is accepted internationally,
organizations will need to meet only one standard, thus simplifying environmental
management. |
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A unified approach to environmental management
provides the opportunity for sharing ideas among facilities. This can increase the
efficiency and benefits of an EMS. |
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Spreading environmental responsibility
throughout the organization places it with those directly associated with environmental
impacts and pollution prevention. This improves the effectiveness and efficiency of
pollution prevention programs. |
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Marketing (return to top) |
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A major study by ICF Kaiser International
"shows that when public companies improve their corporate environmental practices,
they are able to increase shareholder wealth by up to 5 percent...The findings suggest
that when environmental risks are reduced, the company becomes a more attractive
investment to potential and current stockholders." Three factors contribute:
corporate environmental management, environmental performance, and environmental
communications. Click here for the Press
Release. |
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A 1990 Gallup poll found that 52% of those
surveyed stopped buying products with a poor environmental image. Establishing a strong
environmental image can help attract environmentally conscious customers and create
pressure on competitors. This image must be carefully marketed to receive these benefits. |
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Employees see ISO 14000 as good for their
organization and for them personally. |
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Companies can receive credit for existing
systems and accomplishments. |
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In Europe, Japan and other Asian countries, car
manufacturers are continuing to implement and register to ISO 14000. |
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Customers might favor companies with an EMS.
These customers could be the ultimate consumer or industrial customers. As large,
multinational manufacturers register to ISO 14000, they may favor suppliers with ISO 14000
registration. |
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Community support for a facility could be
increased by demonstrating concern for the local environment through an EMS. |
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Workers may be attracted to a company with a
plan to protect the immediate work environment and the surrounding community. |
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A company's products may appeal to customers
seeking green products. |
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ISO 14000 registration demonstrates that the EMS
meets international standards. Since registration requires third party auditing, it
validates the EMS and the claims made by the organization. |
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Regulatory Compliance
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"Under EPA's noncompliance reporting
policy, the discovery and self reporting of a violation discovered by a corporate
compliance program or an audit will justify the mitigation of penalties. Likewise, under
the federal sentencing guidelines, an organization convicted of a crime is entitled to a
reduced penalty if it can show the court that it had an effective compliance program in
effect at the time of the violation." Bert P. Krages II |
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"In Australia a director of a corporation
held liable for a breach of environmental legislation, such as a pollution event, may be
exonerated if they can show they took all reasonable steps to avoid the offence; that is
if they can demonstrate due diligence. This has proved to be a major incentives for
companies to adopt the ISO 14k standard. If they are registered to ISO 14001 (or can prove
they have an effective EMS) then that will go a long way to proving due diligence on their
part." Paul Reed |
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"Wisconsin's EPA has a three-tier model of
fines for criminal and civil penalties, in which the lowest fines are imposed on companies
that are ISO 14000 registered," according to Dennis Abarca, International Approval
Services. |
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In the United States, there are many laws and
regulations designed to protect the environment. They may carry financial and/or criminal
penalties if not observed. ISO 14000 requires evidence of working processes to maintain
compliance with laws and regulations. These processes can help companies identify where
they are out of compliance and take action. |
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Many countries may require or favor companies
with ISO 14000 registration. |
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The EPA's Environmental Leadership Program may
favor companies with EMSs. |
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The State of Pennsylvania has indicated that
fines, penalties and surveillance schedules will be mitigated if an organization has an
EMS. |
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In Europe and Asia, government procurement
policies are or may be requiring ISO 14000 registration of suppliers. |
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Regulators may favor organizations with a ISO
14000 registered EMS. |
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Improved compliance with legislative and
regulatory requirements could reduce penalties and remediation costs. |
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An ISO 14000 EMS demonstrates to regulatory
agencies that the organization is proactive about reducing pollution and committed to
continual improvement. |
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Social (return to top)
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ISO 14000 helps create a common language and
way of thinking about environmental aspects which can help companies, communities,
governments, and organizations communicate and work together. |
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Cleaner air, water, and soil. |
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Longer resource life through reduced usage. |
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Progress toward a sustainable culture. |
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Less waste in land fills. |
