Eco-Factors for International Company Environmental Management Systems

Liselotte Schebek,Elisabeth Nunweiler,Steffen Wellge,Andrea Gassmann,Moritz Werthen

doi:10.3390/su132413897

Abstract

Environmental management systems (EMS) require the assessment of environmental aspects to ensure that organizations recognize their most relevant impacts on the environment. The ecological scarcity method (ESM) provides weighting factors for environmental flows (pollutants and resources), called eco-factors (EF), applicable in the assessment of environmental aspects. EF are based on a distance-to-target approach, displaying the ratio of the current state to the respective policy targets for environmental flows. The ESM has been developed for Switzerland; however, for site-specific application beyond Switzerland, national EF are desirable. This publication presents a systematic procedure for the derivation of EF in an international framework, based on the investigation of eight countries worldwide and comprehensive data research. As a novel feature, the grouping of EF into sets is introduced, according to the character of the underlying policy target: legally based, intended policy, or expert recommendation. Overall, 134 EF for six environmental issues were calculated and applied in a case study from Volkswagen AG. An in-depth analysis identifies the differences between national EF and between sets of EF and discusses the implications for EMS. From the findings, general conclusions for future development and the application of EF in an international context of company management are derived.

Highlights

Environmental management systems (EMS) have evolved since the 1990s; the European Union’s eco-management and audit scheme (EMAS) and the standard ISO 14001 are widely-used international schemes
In 2003, the Volkswagen AG (VW) introduced the so-called SEBU approach in its EMS, which is based on the systematic procedure for the assessment of environmental aspects developed by Gernuks et al [9]
The ecological scarcity method (ESM) is suitable for the assessment of environmental aspects in EMS

Summary

Introduction

Environmental management systems (EMS) have evolved since the 1990s; the European Union’s eco-management and audit scheme (EMAS) and the standard ISO 14001 are widely-used international schemes. Later by the revision of ISO 14001, the requirement for an organization to identify and evaluate its environmental aspects has been introduced [2], thereby promoting that organizations recognize their effective impacts on the environment and focus measures on the most significant aspects. The approach to assess the relevant environmental aspects is largely left to the individual organization [3,4,5,6,7,8]. In 2003, the Volkswagen AG (VW) introduced the so-called SEBU approach (i.e., a system for identification and impact assessment of environmental aspects) in its EMS, which is based on the systematic procedure for the assessment of environmental aspects developed by Gernuks et al [9].

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion