Costs and Benefits
Costs
Implementing and maintaining an EMS involves both internal and external costs. These costs reflect the resources needed to train staff, manage environmental responsibilities, and hire outside support. While these costs may seem significant, they often provide long-term benefits such as reduced violations, lower waste disposal fees, and improved workplace efficiency.
- Internal Costs: Staff and manager time usually represent the bulk of EMS resources used by organizations. Employees may need to attend meetings, perform audits, track environmental performance, and prepare reports.
- Example: A facility manager spends several hours each week updating compliance logs and reviewing energy usage data.
- Example: Employees receive in-house training on new recycling and waste reduction procedures.
- External Costs: Organizations may also need consulting assistance or outside training for personnel. These costs often cover specialized knowledge or certification programs that cannot be handled internally.
- Example: Hiring an environmental consultant to perform an external audit and ensure compliance with regulations.
- Example: Sending employees to an OSHA-approved course on hazardous waste handling.
Cost-Benefit Perspective: Although EMS programs require an initial investment of time, training, and resources, they often save money in the long run. Benefits include fewer environmental violations, reduced waste disposal expenses, better energy efficiency, and improved company reputation. Over time, these savings often outweigh the upfront costs, making EMS a valuable tool for both compliance and business sustainability.
Benefits
When a systematic approach is taken, top management will have the information to do the following:
- Identify significant aspects within the context of the organizations operations, and the risks and opportunities they present
- Mitigate the adverse impacts and taking advantage of positive impacts
- Help the company improve sustained performance and fulfill compliance obligations
- Continually improve all phases of the product throughout the entire life cycle
- Realize significant cost savings that can result from incorporating effective alternatives
- Incorporate people, procedures, and work practices into a formal structure to ensure that the important environmental impacts of the organization are identified and addressed
- Promoting continual improvement in the EMS, including periodically evaluating environmental performance
- Involve all members of the organization
While an effective Environmental Management System (EMS) will certainly improve an organization's environmental performance, it has also been shown to enhance performance in other mission areas. Further, the detailed process of reviewing environmental issues associated with a facility's activities, products, and services often identifies redundancies, wasted effort, and coordination problems that lead to inefficiencies.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
1-2. What is a long-term financial benefit of implementing an EMS?
You forgot to answer the question!