Environmental management principles for businesses

When sustainable development is concerned, the economy in general and each individual business in particular must implement environmental management principles:

1. Recognize environmental management as the highest common priority and the key determinant of sustainable development of the company, and set up policies, programmes and practices protecting the environment;
2. Fully integrate the accepted policies, programmes and practices into every job as one of the basic elements of management in all its functions;
3. Continue upgrading the company’s common policies and programmes, taking into account technical development, scientific understanding, customer needs, and the community’s expectations;
4. Educate, train and motivate employees to include environmental protection in all their activities, and to treat the environment responsibly;
5. Estimate the environmental impact of any activity or project before they begin implementing them;
6. Develop and provide products and services that will not affect the environment inappropriately and that will be safe when used for the intended purposes;
7. Advise and educate customers and the public about safe use, transport and so on, and warn their customers about the characteristics of their products or services that are indicative of their treatment of the environment (such as the percentage of recycled materials, spare part replacement, reprocessing and so on);
8. Take care of efficient energy and material consumption, sustainable use of renewable energy sources, reduction of negative impacts on the environment and waste generation, and safe and responsible waste disposal in developing, constructing and building their facilities and managing their activities;
9. Investigate the environmental impact of their raw materials, products, processes, air and water emissions, and generated waste in order to reduce their negative impact;
10. Change their production, marketing, services or the management of their activities in line with scientific or technical understandings to prevent serious and irreversible damage to the environment;
11. Encourage their suppliers and other business partners to accept these principles;
12. Develop and support a plan outlining the preparations for an emergency in cooperation with the relevant departments, representatives of local governments and self-governments, and others;
13. Contribute to the transfer of environmentally friendly technologies;
14. Contribute to the development of public policies, business, city and state programmes and educational initiatives that will raise awareness of the need for waste management and environmental protection;
15. Nurture openness and dialogue with their employees and the public, anticipate and respond to their concerns about possible hazards and impacts of activities, services, products, waste, and so on;
16. Measure environmental parameters, regularly check and estimate compliance with the requirements of the company, the legal regulations, and these principles, and submit appropriate reports to the authorities, the employees and the public in certain intervals.

(Source: Business Charter for Sustainable Development from the 2nd Global Industrial Environmental Management Conference)