What is the definition of an environmental management system (EMS)?
• Serves as a tool to improve environmental performance; • Provides a systematic way of managing an organization’s environmental affairs; • Serves as the aspect of the organization’s overall management structure that addresses immediate and long-term impacts of its products, services and processes on the environment; • Gives order and consistency for organizations to address environmental concerns through the allocation of resources, assignment of responsibility, and ongoing evaluation of practices, procedures and processes; and • Focuses on continual improvement of the system. What is the EMS Model? An EMS follows a Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle, or PDCA. The diagram below shows the process of first developing an environmental policy, planning the EMS, and then implementing it. The process also includes checking the system and acting on it. The model is continuous because an EMS is a process of continual improvement in which an organization constantly reviews and revises the system. This mo
