6.22.2011

ISO 50001 Just Published – “Energy Management Systems – Requirements with Guidance for Use”

The much anticipated ISO management system for energy management was published on June 15. The ISO 50001 format closely follows ISO 14001 on environmental management. I will be posting comments over the next couple of weeks regarding things I see in it and issues that will help with implementation and integration.

At first glance, where an ISO 14001 or OHSAS 18001 management system is in place, integration of ISO 50001 will be somewhat straightforward.

A unique piece for 50001 is section 4.4.3 that addresses “energy review.” This is the equivalent of environmental aspects in 14001 and risk assessment in 18001. While this standard is new and interpretations will be fleshed out in the coming months and years, the interpretation of “energy” may not be trivial when considering conformance with 50001. The way it is defined will impact how the energy review requirements will be met. Read More

Posted By | in Auditing & Metrics, Corporate Social Responsibility, Emerging Issues, ISO News, Management Systems, Sustainability | Tags: , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

4.30.2010

Building the Sustainability/CSR Department and Personnel Competencies

With the increasing need to address Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) issues, organizations are faced with several options on how to proceed in developing their internal capabilities. Beyond their sustainability and CSR strategy, there are nuts-and-bolts issues to consider, such as who will lead the effort and how to build the team or department.

A common starting place is to tap the EHS department and their personnel. The logic behind this is solid, given how central EHS is to sustainability and CSR. While the EHS function and its personnel are a good starting point, sustainability/CSR quickly encompasses areas in the organization well beyond EHS.

The C-Suite must consider how it is going to identify and develop its people who lead and manage sustainability/CSR. In the case of EHS professionals, those competencies and skills go beyond their solid technical foundation. Read More

Posted By | in Corporate Social Responsibility, Emerging Issues, High Performance Teams, Strategic Thinking & Planning, Sustainability | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

4.28.2010

The Sustainability “Megatrend”

It is common knowledge that sustainability is a big deal. It is a multidimensional issue that impacts all sectors of society. Companies wrestle with how they are going to respond beyond the obvious of energy conservation and waste reduction, when sustainability begins to blur with corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Some direction and insights are provided in an excellent article, “The Sustainability Imperative: Lessons for Leaders from Previous Game-Changing Megatrends,” by David Lubin and Daniel Esty. This article frames sustainability in ways that allow organizations to take actionable steps to impact their sustainability efforts (Harvard Business Review, May 2010).

Many readers are familiar with Esty’s landmark book, Green to Gold, and his work in the environmental policy arena. He evolves the ideas presented in Green to Gold in the “Sustainability Megatrends” article. Lubin and Esty assert that the current sustainability movement can be viewed as a megatrend, as popularized by John Naisbitt in 1982. As such, there are lessons that companies can learn by examining other megatrends, such as IT and quality. Read More

Posted By | in Corporate Social Responsibility, Emerging Issues, Innovation, Risk Management, Strategic Thinking & Planning, Sustainability | Tags: , , , , , | No Comments »

3.26.2010

An Externalities Framework to Develop Sustainability and CSR Strategies

Since the 1987 Brundtland Report, which put sustainability on the business map, the Rio Conference in 1992 and its famous declaration, and the concept of a “triple bottom line” put forth by John Elkington in 1994, issues related to sustainability have expanded as a central topic in corporate boardrooms and business strategy. Along the way, sustainability ideas and concepts have morphed into the broader area of corporate responsibility (numerous terms are used to describe this: corporate citizenship, corporate social responsibility, and social responsibility).

As an important and rapidly evolving area, there is a wild-west quality to defining, executing, and measuring sustainability and CSR initiatives. Commonly identified sustainability issues include: reduction of energy use, carbon-generation, waste, etc. Some CSR norms, sustainability issues, child-labor issues, and good EHS practices have gained general acceptance—but CSR, especially, is still a very fluid area. The CSR (or SR) ISO activities (ISO 26000) might help, but it will take many years for this to fully flesh out. Read More

Posted By | in Corporate Social Responsibility, Emerging Issues, Innovation, Risk Management, Sustainability | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

3.26.2010

Is Your EHS Audit Program Hitting The Mark?

Auditing is a difficult subject—the term rarely conjures pleasant thoughts, and it’s often a dreaded event for the auditee. For the EHS department, it is a complex endeavor, one that EHS professionals often don’t feel they fully have a handle on as they’re presented with issues of program validity and reliability. For internal audit programs in large companies, scheduling can be a nightmare, with auditors swamped by primary-non-audit duties. While EHS departments do complete their audits and generate reports for the C-Suite, Board of Directors, and External Third Parties, the EHS audit programs I’ve observed often miss the mark.

Some of the recent EHS audit program challenges I’ve observed include: (1) integrating EHS management system audits with existing compliance audits; (2) developing procedures to close the gap between EHS program/system upgrades and the audit tools measuring them; (3) training auditors how to audit the EHS management system; (4) identifying leading indicators that can shorten the audit process or be used in site/plant self-assessment activities. Read More

Posted By | in Auditing & Metrics, Corporate Social Responsibility, ISO News, Risk Management, Sustainability | Tags: , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

3.25.2010

Use of Causal Loop Diagrams in Building High Performance EHS Teams

I have worked with several EHS departments to increase their performance and cohesiveness. In partnership, we’ve addressed performance beyond simply meeting regulatory compliance, examining ways that they can integrate EHS deeper into the organization and impact sustainability and CSR. In all of these engagements, I have started by getting the EHS management system up-to-snuff and firing on all cylinders. Beyond the EHSMS, we then focused on:

  • Team vision: developing a strong vision based in the team’s collective wisdom.
  • Communication skills: strengthening internal and external communication and generating alignment.
  • Team learning: developing mechanisms for feedback, analysis, and integration.
  • Systems thinking: strengthened skills in systems ID and mapping.

Read More

Posted By | in Emerging Issues, High Performance Teams, Management Systems, Personal Mastery, Strategic Thinking & Planning | Tags: , , , , , , | No Comments »