Good environmental practices vital for sustainable development

By Dr. Lalith Senaweera

In the past, mankind had a tradition of environmental conservation where people respected nature and understood the fact that all forms of life - human, animal and plant are interrelated and that disturbance in one gives rise to an imbalance in others.

Over the years, a broad range of possible approaches to mitigate the environmental impact on society has been introduced considering the importance of protecting the environment. In the good old days a common approach to pollution was 'the solution to pollution is dilution' method.

Diluted pollutants

However, it was observed that diluted pollutants that accumulated in soil and water and found their way into the food chain affecting the health and safety of the people while yet contributing to environmental degradation.

Society and the world of business has shown positive attitudes toward protecting the environment by bring in good practices and legislation. It is a fact that enactment of stricter environmental legislation has far-reaching effects on the organisations around the world.

As part of the legislation, environmental standards were set up to regulate the discharge of pollutants and it created end-of-pipe treatment systems.

However, end-of-pipe treatment of waste became expensive and affected the economic viability of many organisations.

Besides the high costs, pollutants were not eliminated, but merely transferred from one medium to another. Therefore, it is necessary to address the issue of maintaining a balance between the practices and environmental impact to ensure sustainable development.

In 1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development, or the 'Brundtland' Commission' defined sustainable development as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

This definition has been expanded and debated, but giving due consideration for future generations remains. It is necessary to implement environment-friendly practices to maintain and improve sustainability.

Framework for good practices

A policy frame work is important to ensure that society is on the path of a 'greening' strategy. The following pillars can be considered as important to develop a sound environment-friendly approach within society.

Developing an overall strategy, measuring performance, designing appropriate structures and systems, Developing a strategy as part of the sustainable development strategy, Government Ministries with other institutions can develop a broad based policy framework including clear strategies, goals, activities and time-lines demonstrating environmental leadership and commitment covering all sectors.

This is important to ensure that every approach or practice in the country stems from the policy accepted by all stakeholders.

It is important to develop sound strategies in line with overall policy to ensure that there are no deviations. Consultative groups should be developed among private and public sector organisations to promote and facilitate best environmental practices as it comes from organisation to organisation based on the operational experience rather than theoretical approaches.

The Government can take part as a facilitator and mediator to promote the development of similar strategies nation-wide.

Some of the strategies are: * Identify a focal point with all stakeholders' representatives to develop policies, * Identify carefully priority areas for action that are clearly linked with the overall strategy, * Encourage greener purchasing in all public sector organisations whenever possible as an example to other private sector organisations, * Develop an inter-departmental committee on Performance Measurement to set up, define, and promote the use of common measurements relating to sustainable government operations, * Set up a green procurement policy providing guidance in purchasing for all sectors, * Set up a green reporting system to track performance based on the Performance Measurement indicators and to ensure greening of their operations, * Set up a portal to provide information on Green Purchasing giving free access and to set up a 3M system especially for small companies like 'Pollution Prevention Pays' and to conduct a nation-wide promotion to educate SMEs.

Measuring performance

Measuring Performance of implementation of policies and their outcome are very important to determine whether there is real impact of the identified environmental policies and strategies and to initiate action accordingly.

In this context, it is vital to set up a general, voluntary framework that is flexible enough to be widely used, broadly accepted and interpreted in a simple manner by a large spectrum of sectors. It is also necessary to allow harmonisation of indicators while keeping in mind that indicators should be very specific and valid for virtually all sectors.

For example, the indicators may be energy consumption, material consumption, net water consumption, green house gas emissions and Ozone depleting substance emissions. Once such indicators are set up then it is possible to track the performance against the targets and take action accordingly.

The reports should be available for others through the web portal to be used as part of their development drive greening the supply chain.

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, or Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1992, recommended two important measures to address global environmental issues - Agenda 21 and ISO 14000.

Agenda 21 is a comprehensive set of guidelines for achieving sustainability. It was adopted by 172 nations at the conference. ISO 14000 is a series of standards which addresses environmental management and pollution prevention.

The ISO 14001 series of standards was developed by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO). ISO 14000 series provides a platform for Government officials and policy makers to use it as the internationally accepted framework to develop an environment-friendly system in any organisation.

Moreover, Policy makers should consider proactively the global impact that ISO 14000 standards will have, and make policy decisions to be used as the baseline for designing an environment-friendly system or structure for any organisation.

The ISO 14001 based Environmental Management System addresses key points like the policy for environmental program, training of organisation employees on key environmental aspects and impacts, acceptance of responsibility for environmental impact and the action and programs necessary to mitigate such impact and integrate the environmental function into daily business decisions.

ISO 14001 specifies the framework for the management system that allows any organisation to meet its environmental obligations reliably and consistently. However, ISO 14001 standard has become popular in the world because of its simple structure and the benefits that any organisation can achieve with the proper implementation of such a system.

Some of the benefits of implementing a system based on ISO 14001 are: Improving the relationship between Government and industry, Providing guidance to conserve energy and raw material, Providing leadership on environmental issues, and Providing competitive advantage on green products.

Role of SLSI

The Sri Lanka Standards Institution has certified over 50 organisations under the Environmental Management Certification Scheme in accordance with ISO 14001 covering different scope sectors such as rubber and plastics, food products, textile and textile products, electrical and optical equipment, hotels and restaurants, electricity supply and construction.

The writer is the Director General, Sri Lanka Standards Institution.