Environmental Management: Principles and practice

The establishment of environmental management
A number of developments have helped establish environmental management:
1
The public in an increasing number of countries have become environmentally
aware and unwilling to trust government and corporations to protect the
environment. This has largely grown out of their witnessing accidents, misuse
of resources, and from concern about ecological threats.
2
NGOs, international agencies, business and governments have started to pursue
environmental management.
3
The media monitor and report on environmental issues.
4
International conferences, agreements and declarations have publicized issues
and supported environmental management.
5
The establishment in 1973 of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
6
The 1969 US National Environmental Protection Act (passed 1970) and the
creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970.
7
Publications in North America and Europe which raised environmental concern
after the mid-1960s.
8
The development of green politics since the 1970s.
9
Aid and funding agencies in the late 1970s began to require environmental
assessments and environmental management before supporting development.
10
The Brundtland Report (World Commission on Environment and Development,
1987) increased awareness of the need for environmental care.

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INTRODUCTION
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At the time of the UN Conference on the Human Environment, Stockholm
(1972) few countries had environmental ministries, few newspapers had
environmental editors, or broadcasting companies environmental producers. By the
1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development, Rio (the Earth Summit)
most countries had environmental ministries and media interest had vastly increased.
The release of Agenda 21 (UN, 1992; Keating, 1993; Local Government Management
Board, 1994) encouraged governments and other bodies to develop environmental
management. For example, Agenda 21 has been adapted to local needs in a number
of countries (Patterson and Theobald, 1995; Evans, 1995). Since the early 1990s the
European Union (EU) and the UK have published policy documents on sustainable
development (Commission of the European Community, 1992; Department of
Environment, 1994), Europe has established an Environmental Management and
Audit System (EMAS), international environmental standards have been developed,
and most countries now require impact assessments before developments proceed.
Environmental management shows considerable variation in style and it is still
evolving. It is applied to very different environments, some more ‘natural’ than others:
marine, urban, rural, arid, mountainous, wetlands, etc. A step towards further
improvement is to assess what problems it has encountered and why (Trudgill, 1990).
After this brief outline of the evolution, characteristics and problems of
environmental management, it is useful to present a picture of its principles (i.e. its
main truths and laws), or at least its main themes. Broadly, the main principles of
environmental management are prudence and stewardship. These are pursued via:
♦
forward-looking, broad-view policy making and planning (mainly left to various
planners to undertake);
♦
establishing standards and rules, monitoring and auditing;
♦
co-ordination (the environmental manager adopting a multidisciplinary,
interdisciplinary or holistic approach);
♦
operationalization/implementation.
Sustainable development is linked to prudence and stewardship as a goal; another is
usually human welfare, though there might be situations where long-term human
well-being or conservation aims overrule this.
Since the mid-1980s new branches have appeared on the evolutionary tree of
environmental management (and are discussed in the following chapters):
♦
environmental law;
♦
green business;
♦
impact, risk and hazard assessment;
♦
total quality management (TQM), which has led to total environmental quality
management;
♦
environmental standards;
♦
eco-auditing;
♦
environmental management systems.

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CHAPTER ONE
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