Future Challenges
Environmental issues are closely associated with some of the major challenges organizations will face in the coming decades. Such issues include:
- Increasing interests of communities located adjacent to industrial facilities. The public interest in activities will continue to impact decisions at these facilities. Organizations should be committed to being a good neighbor and responding to community environmental concerns is critical to gaining and maintaining community support.
- Environmental regulatory requirements will continue to grow as new information on possible concerns becomes available. An EMS may allow an organization or facility to identify and address concerns before they reach regulatory status or the EMS will ensure that mechanisms are in place to achieve compliance when new regulations are enacted.
- Increases in funding and manpower resources to address facility management issues are unlikely.
These and other challenges point to the need for a better way to reconcile mission, environmental, and community issues. In the past, environmental programs at facilities have focused on regulatory compliance as the goal and accepted standard for environmental management. That approach may not suffice in the future.
Environmental Protection Agency's Perspective On EMS
Generally speaking, the EPA believes that an effectively designed and operated EMS is advantageous to businesses and can play a role at facilities that are regulated by a number of statutes including:
- the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, also known as RCRA,
- the Clean Air Act, and
- the Clean Water Act.
Because EMS is a proactive approach to environmental management, it can create an environment that supports regulators and the regulated community working together efficiently and effectively.
An EMS serves the organization and its mission. Implementing EMS is a process, not an end result. It's the people and their actions, not their words and aspirations. Improvement rests on changing attitudes and behaviors to want to, not have to.
To find our more information on EPA guidelines and the help it can provide, visit the EPA's Environmental Management Systems (EMS) website.
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6-6. What is a likely future challenge for organizations using EMS?
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