Eco-consciousness is no longer a choice for businesses; it’s a necessity. With the increasing environmental regulations worldwide, sustainability has to take the front seat.
Environmental management system software (EMS) is the lifeblood of every business. You can review your environmental goals and work towards them in an organized, cost-effective, and compliant manner.
But how do you introduce an EMS into your organization? What do you need to consider before investing in it? And most importantly, what follows after implementation?
If that’s what you’re sweating about, fret not.
In this blog, we’ll explore how to develop an effective environmental management system in 6 steps. From laying down your policies to tracking EMS progress, this guide hits the nail on the head.
Let’s begin!
How to Develop an Effective Environmental Management System in 6 Steps
Below are the 6 golden steps for developing and implementing environmental software for your business:
- Identify Your Needs
Start by assessing where your business currently stands in terms of sustainable practices and environmental compliance.
Conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to get an idea of which operations are gobbling up more resources or churning out waste. This will help you identify the potential risks that your business poses to the environment. For instance, if your processes are interfering with biodiversity conservation.
Learn about environmental laws and regulations specific to your business, industry, and region.
Stakeholder engagement is crucial for outlining environmental objectives for your business that are SMART—specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
It’s important to adopt a collaborative approach to understanding stakeholder expectations, and environmental concerns that you might have overlooked.
- Choose the Right EMS Software
The environmental management system software will be the cornerstone of your business. It will support all your green initiatives and keep you ahead of the pack when it comes to sustainability.
First of all, be crystal clear about your requirements. If you want to focus solely on environmental stewardship, invest in an EMS. It’s recommended for businesses that have a higher environmental impact—waste management, energy, etc.
Otherwise, implementing EHS software (environmental, health, and safety) will do the job.
Moving on, identify the key features of the EMS that align with your goals. For example, robust reporting, automated task management, user-friendly interface, customization capabilities, etc.
Ensure that the software is ISO 14001:2015 certified so that you can create eco-friendly policies while staying compliant.
Always compare different vendors and their products first. Check for vendor reputation, customer reviews, past performance, and pricing before making a decision.
Remember, free demos and support/training are the icing on the cake!
- Establish Your Environmental Policy
It’s time to customize the environmental management system software according to your goals. Begin by defining the context of your organization—nature of the business, internal and external issues, stakeholders, risks, etc.
Define a clear environmental policy in the EMS. This will serve as the foundation for all the processes and procedures. Create plans to meet your objectives like carbon footprint reduction, resource conservation, and so on.
- Implement the EMS Software
Assign roles and responsibilities for deploying the EMS and plan the rollout. Designate teams for different tasks like training employees, monitoring EMS progress and challenges, etc.
Allocate resources, set timelines, and get the ball rolling. Run pilot tests before launching the environmental software across the entire organization. This will help you identify loopholes and nip them in the bud.
Migrate your paperwork or data from the existing system to the EMS. Sort out your documentation, discard old documents, and start fresh.
Connect and integrate the software with other tools or tech your business leverages. So that employees can seamlessly coordinate and work with the EMS.
Raise awareness among the employees and stakeholders regarding the environmental management system software—getting started, some basic troubleshooting tips, and how to use it to achieve environmental goals.
- Monitor Your EMS
Continuously monitor the functioning of the EMS—where it’s working and lacking. For example, find out to what extent you are able to implement eco-friendly policies using the software.
Conduct environmental audits to check regulatory compliance as per the ISO 14001 standards. Management reviews are also necessary for assessing the performance of the EMS and if any corrective actions need to be taken.
Watch out for non-conformance or any deviations from the expected track. For example, if the environmental software fails to suggest the right waste management strategies or it keeps hitting a technical snag.
Keep tabs on environmental performance metrics to understand the impact of the EMS on your organization. Depending on how positive or negative that is, you can implement the necessary changes (discussed in the next section).
- Improve & Grow
If the EMS isn’t bringing the desired solution for your business, chances are either the EMS is misaligned from your goals, or your environmental objectives are incorrect in the first place.
For the former, you can always track back EMS processes by monitoring constantly and finding out what went wrong. Whether there’s a technical glitch in the software or you’ve wrongly customized it.
However, it may also be possible that there’s a gap between your environmental policy and the result you wish to achieve.
For example, let’s say your primary goal is to introduce energy efficiency solutions. But if you’ve prioritized waste management in the EMS and all your strategies are per that, your primary target gets sidelined.
Thus, learn continuously from your progress (be it either way) to be on the right track and improve your environmental management system.
Go Green with Effivity EMS Software
Understanding environmental aspects and impacts is a vital component of every successful business. It’s crucial to stay compliant, have a competitive edge, and build a solid reputation in the market.
EMS software is a one-stop destination for improving your environmental management cost-effectively. With our ready-to-implement solution, all you need to do is define the context of your organization, and integrate the software with your existing system!