In many organizations, developing environmental aspects and impacts for office environment seems practically obvious. If you supervise a construction site or a chemical plant, some of these aspects are tangible and can even be visible. You might be capable of seeing the evidence of the aspects and impacts for office environments by merely looking at the discharge of wastes into managed areas for destruction, fumes in the atmosphere and many others.
What Are Environmental Aspects and Impacts for Office
ISO 14001 defines an environmental aspect as an element of a company’s services, products or activities that interacts with the environment. An environmental impact is the change to the environment, whether beneficial or adverse, partly or wholly resulting from a company’s environmental aspects.
Every company, business or even family impacts the environment one way or the other; ISO 14001 is developed to expedite evaluation, measurement, examination and improvement of those environmental aspects and impacts for office environments amongst others.
Identifying Environmental Aspects and Impacts for Office Environment
Environmental aspects and impacts for office are all around, some are small and others are big. In fact, aspects and impacts for office environment begins even before you and your employees get to the office. How do your employees get to work? Are they aware of the environmental impacts of making use of the public transport? In present times, a lot of people drive to work; have you considered the incentives and possibilities of encouraging “car sharing”? If you provide your employees with vehicles, are these vehicles chosen while having their environmental impacts in mind? Having all these in a ‘transport policy’ might be a great idea.
The Legal Aspects
Every district has its own legislation, however, it is best to just set up a legal register that would enable the capturing of the present legislation and therefore provide a proof that you comprehend and adhere to it. There are lots of aspects to consider: for examples, is there air conditioning? What are the gases contained in it? Do they comply with national and legal legislation? Is there production of noise? Is there any discharge into the water system? In the event of a fire, the run-off water goes where? Is damage done to the environment as a result of water spill? All these are merely a sample of the environmental aspects and impacts for office. A good foundation to capture all future legislations and execute it according to your business would be provided by establishing a legal register.
What to Search for When Developing an Environmental Aspects and Impacts Register for the Office.
There are lots of relevant aspects and impacts for office. Some examples are; does the company make use of audio or video call conferencing instead of unnecessarily travelling in cars and airplanes? Could a policy be developed for travelling so as to encourage all the alternatives? It is known that not switching off lights and heating whenever they are not being used is not a good idea from financial and environmental perspectives.
A policy should be developed to manage the organization’s energy in order to let the employees know what’s good and what’s not. How can it be ensured that materials which are being utilized in the office on a daily basis are efficiently used? Are the two sides of paper being used for printing? Is printing even needed at all? As it can be seen, there are a lot of chances for the improvement of the environmental productivity in the office.
It goes as far as making sure that your suppliers adhere to the same values that your company does. This is because there will be improvement in the environment if you ask your company’s supply chain to develop and environmental aspects and impacts register. Adhering to your principles can be rewarded with continued business.
Developing a register for environmental aspects and impacts for office environment by asking the above questions and more would definitely assist in getting accredited for ISO 14001. Due to the fact that your improved environmental productivity can’t stand alone, thus, you have to motivate the improvement of the company’s supply chain. Doing this will improve profitability and efficiency in the long run.
If your organisation is planning to implement ISO 14001 or improve its environmental impact and cut cost, then contact us for a free consultation of how we can help with your project.
