Developing a Process Oriented Environmental Management System (PO-EMS) based on business processes management and reengineering

Abstract

Malaysian construction sector in 2010 contributed five per cent to the Malaysia gross domestic product (GDP); the rate is very attractive to business investment. However this sector is considered to be responsible for high pollution level, climate changes and other environmental threats. All businesses seek to obtain local and global competitive advantages, corporate citizenship and public relation. These advantages can be achieved by improving business performance to be more people- or/and environment-friendly. This is one of the reasons for a construction company to improve its environmental management system (EMS) via Project Environmental Management. This includes the processes required to ensure that the impacts of the project execution to the surrounding environment will remain within the limits stated in the legal permits. The shortest way to improve business EMS is to manage and reengineer its process, thus improving its public image. The aim of this paper is to present literature review about characteristics, drivers, benefits, and barriers related to EMS, to Business Processes Management (BPM) and Business Processes Reengineering (BPR). This paper also suggests a Process Oriented Environmental Management System (PO-EMS) framework based on EMS of ISO14001, BPM and BPR.