For many years, environmental management systems, as tools for minimizing negative impacts on the natural environment, were popular mainly in manufacturing companies, which exert by far the greatest impact on their surroundings. Growing consumption, and consequently the increase in the volume of transported goods – especially by road transport – means that the negative impact of transport on the natural environment is becoming increasingly visible. The ecological awareness of society and the growing attention paid to operating in accordance with the principle of sustainable development have forced logistics operators to change their approach to the quality of services provided and market competition. A very important element of the fight for the customer, apart from price and reliability, is becoming the company’s image in the context of operating with respect for the natural environment. Consequently, the largest logistics operators are increasingly reaching for environmental management system tools to control and minimize negative environmental impacts and improve the company’s image in the eyes of customers and business partners.
Sustainable development and environmental management systems
In the era of globalization, companies from various industries, including the logistics industry, have begun to seek a new path to achieving a competitive advantage. Until now, the key tools in the fight to win customers were price and quality. Today, the growing ecological awareness of societies has revolutionized and re-evaluated the approach of consumers in the context of making choices about purchasing products and services, thus introducing another criterion for achieving a competitive advantage. The growing discussion around sustainable development, which, according to the definition contained in the Environmental Protection Law in Art. 3, means “such socio-economic development in which the process of integrating political, economic and social actions takes place, while maintaining natural balance and the durability of basic natural processes, in order to guarantee the possibility of satisfying the basic needs of individual communities or citizens of both the present generation and future generations,” has played a significant role here. Currently, these considerations have ceased to function only at the macroeconomic level and have moved to the microeconomic level, forcing companies to take action in the field of environmental protection. Therefore, environmental management is gaining importance, which, in relation to an organizational unit, is understood as the management of processes of use, protection and shaping of the environment, integrated with the general management system of the unit. It includes: organizational structure, planning, procedures, processes and resources used to implement and conduct the management of the unit in a way that takes environmental protection into account.
Environmental management systems (EMS – Environmental Management Systems), which are characterized by the principle of neutrality, i.e., the pursuit of operations that in no way affect the natural environment, are considered the basis for environmental management. In the rich literature on the subject, it is emphasized that the implementation of an environmental management system by an enterprise is based on the principle of voluntariness, and the element initiating the decision to implement it is the development of a long-term strategy for the sustainable development of the enterprise, with the need for continuous improvement of qualifications and refinement of adopted actions, taking into account the development perspective of a given industry and increasing market requirements. Among the stages related to building an environmental management system are: formulating an environmental policy, identifying environmental problems related to business operations, determining legal requirements that apply to existing and potential threats, setting environmental goals, determining action priorities, developing implementation programs, planning, supervising, controlling and coordinating individual activities, and continuous improvement of the system and adapting it to changes occurring in the environment. One of the most widespread environmental management systems is EMAS and a system implemented in accordance with the standards of the ISO 14000 standard.
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Source: Logistyka Magazine