Environmental Reporting Is Therefore Essential Not Just To Act As The

Environmental Reporting is therefore essential not just to act as the company's own environmental audit, but to demonstrate to stakeholders and society that they are indeed conducting themselves in a sustainable manner. Moreover, achieving sustainability is a complicated and long-term (if not permanent) process; Environmental Reporting allows a company not only to evaluate its accomplishments, but also the opportunity to re-evaluate its target. The following section outlines some case studies of how organizations have used EMS and Environmental Reporting to minimize their environmental impact.
Case Studies
This section will present a few case studies to illustrate the value of EMSs and Environmental Reporting. Each case study has been selected to show range in the applicability of the standards as well as to demonstrate their use in both the public and private sectors.
Solid Waste Management Division, Department of Public Works. Berkeley, California, USA.
Description
The Solid Waste Management Division is Berkeley's municipal waste collection and disposal facility. It collects plant debris, refuse and recycling from approximately 40,000 residential and commercial properties, as well as operating a transfer station, an oil-recycling depot, and a drop-off and buy-back recycling centre. The Solid Waste Management System decided to implement an EMS (involving about 25 per cent of their 102 employees) for a variety of reasons, including: improving the facility's environmental performance, as well as employees participation in this improvement; making the particular division consistent with the City's overall environmental principles; the EMS' value as a marketing/public relations tool; the reduction of costs; and finally, an increased competitive advantage.
Conclusions
Through implementing an EMS, the Solid Waste Management Division was able to jointly determine what environmental impacts the facility had, or might have in the future. These were then ranked and goals set to lessen the environmental impact of the facility. These included: eliminating 98 per cent of dust particles, reducing the electricity used by 250Kwh annually, improving the control of hazardous materials brought into the site by 75 per cent, adding three mailings per year to enhance consumer participation in recycling collection, reducing water consumption by 25 per cent, and reducing number of pickups scheduled to reduce fuel consumption and emissions.
Some of the direct benefits and contributions to Sustainable Development have been: a reduction in air pollution for the entire City of Berkeley; gaining respect and better cooperation from the Department of Public Works, including budget changes; and consultation by other City of Berkeley Departments and other Solid Waste practices all over the United States.