Journal
JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION
Volume 16, Issue 4, Pages 517-530Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2007.01.004
Keywords
environmental management system; environmental performance; indicators; ISO 14001; uncertainty of measurements
Ask authors/readers for more resources
EMS is a tool for managing the interaction between the organization and the environment. The aim of an EMS is to improve the overall environmental performance of the organization. The performance should be monitored through measurements, and managed by indicators. Indicators are variables that summarize or otherwise simplify relevant information about the state of a complex system. A correct evaluation of environmental performance arises from the choice of adequate raw data and from the relationships among raw data. This paper, after a short excursus concerning the rule of indicators in environmental performance evaluation and the mean of uncertainty, proposes an approach to the study and the evaluation, through indicators and indices, of the environmental aspect wastewater discharges of a Local Authority who is involved in EMS implementation. Particularly, the critical analysis of one of the indices that has been used is reported. The role of the uncertainty of measurements has been stressed. The results showed that measurement uncertainty is essential for an efficient data comparison and for a correct evaluation of environmental performance, which, in turn, is essential to guarantee the effectiveness of the EMS application. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available