Here’s a safe guess: you make things or serve others and their contract demands an environmental management system (EMS) certified against International Standard ISO 14001.
So you may have to keep spill kits handy where chemicals are stored, separate incompatible ones, and permit equipment to protect air, water, or land. Different from but somewhat like an insured person who foregoes cigarettes, alcohol, and skydiving to pay less for premiums.
Either way is risk control. Run your plant without environmental concern, and you pay lower insurance premiums and no fines. But this also means that you must perform well, going against the grains of entropy and apathy.
Inanimate opponents include wear and tear, collisions between pieces of equipment, fires, and even wind, water, and soil erosion. Living opponents include absence of respect among staff, overemphasis on a single subject to exclusion of others, and even just plain fear which can immobilize people who ought be self-directed or receive direction to act.
Your plant may not face such extreme opposition. But the point is, systematic environmental management forces a company to eliminate any such opponents to good performance. That is because ISO 14001 requires a company know its context, that is, the commercial setting in which it remains a going concern. Likewise, the standard stipulates that the system have a policy as a statement of ideal performance and that leadership model it to employees. Without detailing them, other EMS elements include planning, support, operational controls, monitoring, and management review.
In short, building an EMS forces a self-examination which beats regulators to the punch. By virtue of ISO 14001 certification, companies not only find themselves complying with existing regulations but also integrating the business element of environmental risk into their daily practices. For more on how to make an EMS and ISO 14001 certification a reality for your company, please contact Don Dickerson, P.E. and Exemplar Global EMS Auditor 111772 at ddickersonjunior@gmail.com or (470) 539-0208.