Environmental Management: Principles and practice

Total quality management and environmental management systems
(Environmental management systems and eco-audit are further discussed in
chapter 4.)
Total quality management (TQM) (also called company-wide quality
management) aims to provide assurance of adherence to policy and specifications
through a structured management system, and to enable demonstration of it to third
parties through documentation and record-keeping. TQM was first formulated in the
USA, and largely developed in Japan in the early post-war period to try to improve
industrial competitiveness. Environmental management systems (EMSs) show
adherence to a suitable environmental policy, the meeting of appropriate
environmental objectives (equivalent to specifications in quality management) and
the ability to demonstrate to a wide range of interested parties (‘customers’ in TQM)
that the system requirements and objectives are met. EMSs, usually require that a
company or body publishes and regularly updates an Environmental Policy Statement.
An EMS provides an organizational structure, procedures and resources for
implementing environmental policy. It also provides a language of performance and
quality that can be understood by management (Willig, 1994; British Standards
Institution, 1996). So far, adoption of EMS has mainly been voluntary with rapid
growth of interest and continuing modification and improvement. Hunt and Johnson
(1995:4) suggested this indicates business has shifted from ‘defensive environmental
management’ to accepting the need for probity.
There are critics of EMSs, who argue it is possible to rig them by setting easy-
to-achieve targets; that it is more important (and difficult) to nurture satisfactory
environmental ethics; and that EMS is still being developed and tested (for a critique
see: Welford, 1996:52).
Covenants
A government or other regulatory body can provide companies with a more stable
regulatory environment and encourage development of better pollution control plans
or adoption of an EMS (Beardsley et al., 1997:33) through a covenant. This is a
written, voluntary agreement signed by the company or other body and the
government or agency seeking regulation. The Netherlands has made extensive use
of covenants as part of an integrated approach to national environmental management
policy. A Dutch company undertaking a covenant would be expected to produce a
development plan every four years, to be reviewed by local authorizing bodies. The
plan coverage includes pollution control and energy conservation and it is seen as a
way of getting national policies implemented at local level. Measures were initiated
by the National Environmental Policy Plans (adopted by the Dutch Parliament in

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BUSINESS AND LAW
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1989), and by 1997 over 1,200 companies had signed covenants. The covenanting
approach can be quite effective, particularly in cutting pollution. However, some
NGOs are not keen on the approach, viewing it as closed or cosy and not sufficiently
open to third parties to check. There are also some worries that it may lead to a
softening of enforcement controls. Nevertheless, it is an approach which encourages
company self-regulation.