Evaluation of operational environmental performance: an engineering-based approach. (12th October 2009)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Burvill, C.; Mead, G.; Weir, J.; McGowan, P.; Reuter, M.; Schiavone, F.; Leary, M.
• Is Part Of: International journal of sustainable design. Volume 1:Number 2(2009)
• Page Start: 180
• Page End: 198
• Publication Date: 2009-10-12
• Subjects: EMS -- environmental management systems -- process variation -- fuzzy logic -- chemical process analysis -- environmental performance -- engineering-based risk evaluation -- risk assessment; Sustainable design -- Periodicals; Design, Industrial -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; 745.2
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1743-8284

Abstract

The corporate sector is increasingly required to understand and manage the environmental consequences of their activities by the use of Environmental Management Systems (EMSs). A diverse range of EMSs have been proposed in the literature. These methods have been reviewed and assessed in this paper according to their suitability for evaluation of operational environmental performance. Existing methods present limitations in accommodating changes in environmental performance, and do not incorporate fundamental process analysis to assess how the actual performance varies from what is theoretically achievable. A novel engineering-based risk evaluation framework is proposed to overcome some of the identified issues.