Environmental Management Process Research Articles

ADULT EDUCATION AND WATERSHED KNOWLEDGE IN UPSTATE NEW YORK1

ABSTRACT: Integrated watershed management encompasses complex physical and social issues that have impacts on environmental resources. A key aspect of this holistic effort is public education. Most researchers and practitioners agree that an informed public is a crucial part of the environmental management process. Yet, educational programs that provide stakeholders with information about physical processes in watersheds are often unavailable. This paper assesses the effect of an education program for residents of the New York City watershed. Surveys evaluated certain knowledge levels and attitudes of participants and compared three groups: individuals who utilized the educational materials completely (full users), those who received the materials but did not use them completely (partial users), and watershed residents who did not receive the educational program (nonrecipients). Full users displayed a higher level of knowledge concerning specific watershed processes than did partial users and nonrecipients. In terms of applying that knowledge across linked concepts, however, we observed no significant differences between the three readership levels. Furthermore, partial users engaged in less evaluation of issues that related to the broader watershed context. The findings from this project have implications for educational and regulatory institutions and program development relating to watershed protection.

Integrated environmental management process applying genetic algorithm

This study proposes a Total Environmental Management System using a Genetic Algorithm (TEMS-AGA), which takes into account the possible effects on the environment together with other management concerns such as quality, lead time, and cost. In TEMS-AGA, a problem is modeled by an AND–OR-type tree structure in its structural aspects and by a list of symbolic expressions in its quantitative aspects. TEMS-AGA evaluates the activity (policy, project) using a symbolic manipulation technique. GA is used to search a compromising better solution. Experiments showed that the determination of sub-optimal combinations of activities for a problem with multiple facet can be made by GA.

Editorial Policy on Referees

There is more to being a scientist than completing a research project and communicating the results to one's peers and the general public. Scientists have a wide range of responsibilities both within the scientific community and within society as a whole. I have frequently urged my colleagues to participate in the political processes of environmental management and conservation. It is equally necessary for scientists to contribute to the mechanics of keeping the scientific community functional. Individuals need to take responsibility for organizing scientific meetings, administering scientific societies, reviewing grant applications, and publishing professional journals. Peer review of the work and research proposals of colleagues is a necessary contribution of time if the machinery of science is to function smoothly. As editor of this journal, I can assure you that not all scientists accept these responsibilities.

Integrated environmental risk management in real estate transactions

Traditional risk management posits a rational, five‐step process for managing risks. The outstanding difference between this traditional process and the environmental risk management process lies in the technicality and complexity of step one (identifying and analyzing environmental risk) and of the first part of step two (examining the feasibility of alternative risk management, specifically, risk control techniques). The two main differences between the environmental risk management process in the context of a transaction as practiced today, and when a transaction is not involved, are that the first step is even more complicated in the former case, and that environmental lawyers managing such transactions do consider risk control as well as risk financing techniques together, but usually stick to indemnification as a risk transfer technique and ignore insurance. Insurance is, in many ways, preferable to indemnification as a risk transfer technique, and should also be a standard provision in the transactional document. There are policies available now that can cover the risks that need to be covered, and that can be manuscripted to fit in with the transaction, but care should be taken that they actually cover the risks. Insurance should be considered and applied in at least two stages of the process: at the beginning, during the risk identification and analysis stage, and in the middle, in negotiating the environmental provisions of the purchase and sale agreement.

The perceived benefits of an environmental management standard

An exploratory pilot study identifying the perceived benefits of accreditation to an environmental management standard, BS 7750, in 13 UK companies. This paper begins by exploring the benefits of “going green”, followed by a description of the different environmental management standards. Then the methodology of the study is explored, including the structure of the questionnaire and the sample breakdown. The results section follows, detailing the broad results at each of the three stages of the questionnaire. Main findings are summarised in the conclusion followed by an indication of the future direction of the work. The paper concludes by identifying that the main benefit for companies in gaining an environmental management standard would appear to be the ability to quantify and identify elements of the environmental management process in the company, allowing a company to measure, manage and audit within a structured, recognised format.

Rethinking environmental management

The field of environmental management developed as a technocentric problem-solving initiative, providing ‘practical’ assistance to state officials involved in environmental management. Since the field was largely associated with what state officials and associated experts ‘dO', little effort was devoted to understanding the political, economic or cultural forces conditioning the process of environmental management. The potentially significant contribution of diverse nonstate actors – for example, farmers, shifting cultivators, businesses or nongovernmental organizations – to this process was notably neglected. The field has recently become the target of mounting criticism with ‘environmental managerialism’ dismissed as a research agenda divorced from key issues in human–environment interaction. This article argues that a recognition of the limitations of traditional understandings of environmental management ought to serve as the basis for a rethink of this field of study. This argument is developed in two stages. The article first explores how the traditional approach understands environmental management as a state-centred process, assesses diverse problems with that understanding and sketches an alternative way of thinking about this issue. The article then assesses how environmental management as a field of study is usually understood, the pitfalls of that understanding and the possible contours of an alternative appreciation of the field of environmental management. By adopting a more inclusive understanding of what environ-mental management is as a process, a broader appreciation of the nature of environmental management as a field of study can be obtained. The article concludes that a revitalized field can overcome existing deficiencies so as to be in a position to make thereafter an important contribution to research on human–environment interaction.

The Green Supply Chain: Integrating Suppliers into Environmental Management Processes

IN BRIEFIn business today, companies cannot ignore environmental issues. Increasing government regulation and stronger public mandates for environmental accountability have brought these issues into the executive suite, and onto strategic planning agendas. At the same time, companies are integrating their supply chain processes to lower costs and better serve customers. These two trends are not independent; companies must involve suppliers and purchasers to meet and even exceed the environmental expectations of their customers and their governments. Based on case studies of five companies in the furniture industry, a number of supply chain environmentally‐friendly practices (EFP) are identified. Using accepted qualitative research methods for case‐based research, several primary areas for change to increase purchasing's impact on environmental results are identified: 1. Materials used in product design for the environment 2. Product design processes 3. Supplier process improvement 4. Supplier evaluation 5. Inbound logistics processesThe experiences of these companies illustrate the types of environmentally‐friendly practices used in each of these five areas, and “rules of thumb” which purchasing and supply chain managers can apply. Two additional themes which emerge from this research are the importance of management's commitment to supply chain EFP, and the need to move beyond environmental compliance to achieve a proactive environmentally‐friendly supply chain.

Environmental Problems in Sao Paulo: The Challenge for Co‐Responsibility and Innovative Crisis Management

This article describes and analyzes the main environmental problems that affect the city of Sao Paulo. The article views the impacts of the local dynamics of urbanization and its effects on daily life. The discussion is centered on the complexity of the environmental management processes and the implementation of conventional and non‐conventional policies and programmes to prevent environmental degradation. Possible solutions to alleviate the effects of floods and climate factors on households are debated as well as the possibilities of formulating more participatory oriented policies to engage citizens in the knowledge of environmental risks. These issues represent a very complex challenge to the urban government of Sao Paulo.

WOMEN AND MINORITY GROUPS IN ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

The work reported here explores how women and indigenous groups could potentially contribute to the process of environmental management. Women, indigenous communities and the poor are minorities due to their powerlessness. The result is that their opinions are not sought and minorities are not treated as contributors to modern development interventions. The objective of this paper is to examine how local knowledge and strategies contribute to the management of the resources of local environments. It is seen that women are marginalized in two ways. On the one hand, due to their gender, women are socialized as homemakers and family labour in farming and the management of other resources. On the other hand, women lack resources. Indigenous groups are marginalized due to the fact that their environmental management methods are not technical and cannot be institutionalized. The information extracted from two field studies conducted in Sri Lanka reveals that for women's and indigenous minority groups environmental management is an integral part of their resource use and therefore integrating locally evolved strategies is a way to stabilize, restore and sustain the survival systems. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment. Sustainable Development, Vol. 5, 11–20 (1997)

System-Modelle und Simulations-Programme im Umweltmanagement – Eine kritische Analyse zum Stand der Technik

Environmental management has become a popular notion to describe the sum of strategies and of control measures of an organizational entity (a private enterprise or a public organization) to reach a state of activities which can be qualified as “compatible with the environment”. Within the last two decades a growing number of methods have been developed to be applied in the evaluation of the environmental management. They all focus on quality goals for certain aspects of the environment. In all cases more or less scientific concepts and models are used to quality and quantify the metabolic processes generated by man. In addition an exponentially growing number of computer programs are offered on the market to support the process of environmental management. These programs can be divided into two main groups. One group is restricted to data simulation. The other focuses on system simulation. In this context environmental management asks for a scientifically well founded understanding of anthropogenic systems, connected to geogenic systems. It is explained why very sophisticated data simulation programs cannot contribute to a better system understanding. However they serve as essential complementary tools to the systems models. It is shown, exemplified with the material flux analysis, how the system approach can be applied in a very broad spectra of environmental management problems.

Principles and planning opportunities for community scale systems of water and waste management

There are social, economic and environmental reasons for shifting towards a more localized, community-scale system of water and waste management in our cities. This paper outlines some of these and provides an historical context as to how we have reached the need for this change. A case study illustrates how a localized system can be better on all three parameters. It is suggested that the best opportunity for achieving localized systems is to utilize the planning process with its links to community, regulatory powers for environmental management and metropolitan scale strategic processes.

Principles and planning opportunities for community scale systems of water and waste management

There are social, economic and environmental reasons for shifting towards a more localized, community-scale system of water and waste management in our cities. This paper outlines some of these and provides an historical context as to how we have reached the need for this change. A case study illustrates how a localized system can be better on all three parameters. It is suggested that the best opportunity for achieving localized systems is to utilize the planning process with its links to community, regulatory powers for environmental management and metropolitan scale strategic processes.

Co-operation processes in dynamic environment management: Evolution through training experienced pilots in flying a highly automated aircraft

Dynamic environment management (process control, aircraft piloting, etc.) increasingly implies collective work components. Pragmatic purposes as well as epistemological interests raise important questions on collective activities at work. In particular, linked to the technological evolution in flight management, the role of the ‘collective fact’ appears as a key point in reliability. Beyond the development of individual competencies, the quality of the ‘distributed’ crew activity has to be questioned. This paper presents an empirical study about how experienced pilots co-ordinate their information and actions during the last period of training on a highly automated cockpit. A task of disturbance management (engine fire during takeoff) is chosen as amplifying cognitive requirements. Analysis focuses on the transitions between the main task and the incident to be managed. Crew performance and co-operation between two pilots are compared in three occurrences of the same task: the results are coherent with the hypothesis of a parallel evolution of the crew performance and its internal co-operation, and show that prescribed explicit co-operation is more present on action than on information about the ‘state of the world’. Methodological issues are discussed about the possible effects of the specific situation of training, and about the psychological meaning of the results.

Implementing the new urban agenda: the case of Ismailia, Egypt

This paper examines the implementation of an urban environmental management process in Ismailia, Egypt within the context of what can be termed the "new urban agendas" that emerged in recent years which stress the need to combine economic, social and environmental goals and to involve all actors within a city in defining and implementing solutions. The paper also suggests factors that are important for effective urban management in all cities.

Geomorphology and Land Management in a Changing Environment

The environment remains a hot academic subject. The research it generates is furthering our understanding of many environmental problems and solutions. Of particular importance is our emerging understanding of relationships between environmental change, land management, and Earth surface processes and landforms. This is the subject of Geomorphology and Land Management in a Changing Environment, a new addition to the British Geomorphologic Research Groups Symposia Series. The editors have compiled 18 chapters that cover a range of topics related to geomorphology, land use, environmental change, and the application of geomorphic principles to solving land management and environmental problems.

Organization, Management, and Client Effects on Staff Burnout

Employee burnout is perceived to be a serious problem in human service organizations serving persons with severe mental illness. There has been considerable investigation of burnout and many of its possible causes, but little investigation of the role of client severity in relationship to burnout. Furthermore, theoretical models linking environmental context, organization structure, and management processes to burnout have seldom been proposed or examined. Building on our previous work, we employ a theoretical framework that conceptualizes environmental context, organization structure, management processes, client severity and staff characteristics as influencing work satisfaction and burnout. We examine this in a survey of 311 staff in 42 community mental health service organizations. Controlling for individual staff characteristics, results suggest that organization structure, culture, and management process are important to work environment and in turn to satisfaction and subsequently to burnout. Contrary to the literature, client severity was not associated with burnout nor to work dissatisfaction.

UTILITARIAN AND RIGHTS‐BASED ALTERNATIVES FOR PROTECTING SITES OF SPECIAL SCIENTIFIC INTEREST

Current legislation in Great Britain has set up a class of protected land under the designation Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). However, what values are to be protected, and how, are questions largely left unanswered. Areas which are designated as worthy of protection can still be threatened by gradual erosion due to rural development. The designation of a site as being of conservation value requires an agency which enforces protection from development. We highlight the conflicts which have arisen between landowners and conservationists over SSSI management and analyse the role of a conservation agency under alternative environmental philosophies. We show how the values underlying the motive for conservation will affect the environmental management process chosen. This provides contrasting views as to the future for countryside management, and focuses concern on the current trend towards the free market in which trade‐offs based upon the anthropocentric usefulness of nature are fundamental.

Protecting Sites of Special Scientific Interest: Intrinsic and Utilitarian Values

Great Britain faces ever-growing threats to the countryside from an expanding population and urban-industrial sprawl. In addition, areas which are designated as worthy of protection can be threatened by more gradual erosion via rural development. Current legislation in Great Britain has set up a class of protected land under the designation Site of Special Scientific Interest. However, what exactly is to be protected, and how, are questions largely left unanswered. The designation of a site as being of conservation value requires an agency which enforces protection from rural development. We analyse the role played by such a conservation agency under alternative environmental valuation philosophies. We show how the values underlying the motive for conservation will affect the environmental management process chosen, with particular emphasis on the role of rural development. This provides contrasting views as to the future for countryside management, and focuses concern on the current trend towards the free market in which trade-offs based upon the anthropocentric usefulness of nature are fundamental.

Forging new links between environmental management, information systems, and business processes

AbstractThis article is excerpted from Chapter 1 of Environmental Management Information Systems, which will be published by McGraw‐Hill in 1994. A central theme of the book is that all successful implementations of environmental management information systems (EMIS) are based on the appropriate alignment of goals and procedures from three enterprise domains: business processes, environmental management, and information systems.Environmental managers (EM) and information systems (IS) professionals have each been guilty of seeing their functions as primary, domains of specialized scientific expertise inaccessible to outsiders. In fact, however, the enterprise is the customer for both domains; without successful business strategies and systems the enterprise does not require either EM or IS wizards. This article shows why and how essential it is that each of the three domains understands enough of the other two domains to structure good decisions.

Questions and answers. TQEM performance indicators—how do you measure up?

AbstractI have seen a number of corporations accept the philosophy of TQEM and start the process of total quality environmental management with great enthusiasm. I believe that many organizations are attracted because TQM principles demand measurements of success and results that are definable for the environment. It reduces the emotionalism that frequently tends to surround environmental issues. Emotionalism has perhaps been the bane and boon of efforts by corporations and advocacy groups to incorporate environmental issues into the day‐to‐day functions of organizations. Abt Associates, a well‐known research‐based consulting firm, recently completed a study of U.S. Fortune 250 firms' environmental management programs. Abt found evidence that environmental performance is a competitive issue. Benchmarking is hotly pursued to develop firm‐wide indices of performance. One third of the benchmarking is against competition, another third is against worldwide firms. There is a race to develop “Best in Class” standards now. E2M and Abt Associates have combined resources to study corporate Canada's environmental management programs and compare these with those of the United States. This research will help companies benchmark activities and will build a strong North American data base. Unfortunately it will not be ready in time to answer TQEM's question for this issue. (The study results will be released to participating companies in Fall 1992.)