Environmental Management Tools and Methods

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Importance of sustainability
Tools and methods
Environmental risk assessment
Environmental impact assessment
Strategic environmental assessment
Conclusion
References

Introduction

Various companies and nations are moving towards using renewable and sustainable sources of energy. This can be attributed to the dilapidation of non renewal energy and environmental degradation.

An efficient source of energy should ensure environmental engineering, prevention of pollution, environmental conscious design and manufacturing, industrial ecology, as well as sustainable development.

An example of asustainable and renewable source of energy is tidal power. Tidal power can meet about 30% of energy consumption in a country, which is created by the urge to turn away from the energy generated from fossils (Nemetz, 2009; Inoquchi, et al, 2007).

Apart from generation of renewable energy, tidal power project in England is also expected to improve the economy of the country since it will lead to job creation, improvement of connectivity, create tourism opportunity, and store fresh water and extraction (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2013).

Importance of sustainability

There are a number of benefits that result from the use of sustainable energy. Sustainability denotes the ability to generate continued energy without risk of depletion. Specifically, the UK defines sustainable energy as the one which ensures economic growth, minimizes pollution and conservation of natural resources.

First, sustainability ensures economic growth and development of a country over time (The New Journalist, 2013; Paola, 2011). Growth is ensured by the continued supply of required energy. Further, sustainability ensures protection of the environment since it guarantees a decline in pollution of the environment.

Further, it should also ensure a decline in the use of the expensive non renewable energy. This in turn reduces the cost of living. Also, sustainability should ensure that there is a minimization of negative impact on the human race.

This can be in the form of scramble for natural resources and health disorders that might arise from pollution of the environment (UNC Chap Hill, 2005; Eradas, 2011).

Tools and methods

Environmental management and disaster reduction go through three key processes. These are, planning, assessment and implementation. There are management tools that are used in each of the three key stages. Environmental profiling, Eco and hazard mapping are the tools used for planning.

Under assessment, the three tools used are environmental risk assessment (ERA), environmental impact assessment (EIA), and strategic environmental assessment (SEA).

Finally, under implementation, the tool that is commonly used is the environmental management system (Fischer, 2007; Desimone&Popoff, 2006). This section will discuss the three environmental management tools that are used in the second stage.These tools are ERA, EIA, and SEA.

Environmental risk assessment

The use of the ERA tool is growing at a high rate and becoming a standard process in all environmental projects. This arises from the need to implement environmentally friendly and sustainable projects.

Environmental risk assessment (ERA) focuses on providing an analysis of the probability of occurrence of a defined level of hazard during the implementation of the process. It is worth noting that all decisions made during planning have some risk element.

Risk can be defined as the possibility of occurrence of an event which is likely to cause damaging consequences. Such events arise from various causes, such as natural disasters and disatsres occuring because of a human activity.

Environmental risk assessment tool establishes the potential impact of the highlighted risks on the human race and the entire ecosystem. The tool also comprises the risk management and communication of risks. ERA goes through five distinct processes.

The first stage is problem identification, which entails coming up with a list of possible risks that may occur.

The second stage entails characterization of risk that entails grouping of the risks identified and expanding on their nature.

The third stage is risk management. This is the most significant stage since it will provide solutions that will mitigate the risk highlighted.

The fifth stage is risk review. It is a control stage that will review the other processes and give feedback on the process of risk assessment.

The final step of the management tool is communication and consultation. This is where the result of the whole process is communicated back to the first stage of the process and the rest of the project.

One advantage of this tool is that it helps in identifying and mitigating risks that are likely to be faced by the community as a result of implementation of the tidal power project.

A disadvantage consists in the fact that it is not possible to identify all possible risks. Further, the risks identified cannot be properly formulated. Thus, as much as the process is beneficial, it might not be comprehensive enough to identify and manage all risks.

Environmental impact assessment

Environmental impact assessment is a well organized procedure for forecasting the consequences of a project on the environment.

EIA “facilitates identification, analysis and evaluation of potential environmental impacts, and the identification and elaboration of measures that will avoid, remedy or mitigate any adverse impacts arising from disasters” (The University of the South Pacific, 2013).

Environmental impact assessment also goes through five processes.

The first process is baseline studies. This stage entails carrying out an assessment of the possible impact of the project on the environment.

This might also entail a review of the impactof other similar competed tidal power projects across the world. The outcome of this stage is a summary of possible environmental impact of the tidal power project.

The second process is an impact evaluation and assessment. This stage entails a review of the various listed possible impacts of the tidal power project.

The third process is documentation, which will comprise the possible impacts of the project and possible solutions.

The fourth process entails making decisions based on the evaluations carried out. The management will decide on the course of action to take for each consequence on the environment.

The final step is post audit evaluation. This stage will aid in evaluating the effectiveness of the course of action chosen by the management (Keijzers, 2004).

This tool enables the management of the tidal power project to make informed decisions and various actions to take on the consequences identified since it will provide all the necessary information concerning the impact of the project on the environment.

The tool aids in putting in place the monitoring and evaluation framework for implementation of the mitigation measures. Further, it aids in implementing complex projects such as the tidal power project.

This “promotes environmentally sound and sustainable development through the identification of appropriate enhancement and mitigation measures” (The University of the South Pacific, 2013).

A key disadvantage of this tool is that it only provides information to aid the management to make decisions on various courses of actions to take, but it does not provide a final decision for a given consequence.

Thus, the tool itself cannot guarantee that the management of the tidal power project will follow a certain course of action. This casts doubt on the ability to use it as a control tool.

Strategic environmental assessment

The final assessment tool is the strategic environmental assessment. The tool is quite comprehensive and integrated since it involves all players in the project planning and implementation process.

Strategic environmental assessment ensures that substantial effects on the environment arising from disasters are identified, assessed, mitigated, and communicated to the decision makers; monitoring and evaluation also occur. The tool also ensures the involvement of the public in the entire process.

The tool further ensures that the environmental consequences that arise from the implementation of the tidal power project are addressed early and on par with the economic and social considerations.

The tool helps comprehensively understand the impact of disaster activities that are likely to occur before and after the implementation of the tidal power project (Van-der, 2007; Thomas&Vincent,2012).

Using this tool in the tidal power project will enhance accountability and credibility among the community and all stakeholders of the project.

It is worth mentioning that the though SEA is slightly similar to EIA, SEA is superior to the other two tools discussed above since it has a wide coverage and it can influence the decision based on the options available.

In some nations among the European countries, strategic environmental impact analysis is mandatory for certain projects such as tourism, energy and forestry among others.

Therefore, apart from being beneficial to the management for decision making, by using the tool the management will be complying with various statutory requirements (European Commission, 2012).

Strategic environmental assessment goes through six basic stages.

The first stage is screening. This stage gives a summary of a brief outline of the plan of the tidal power project. The screening stage also takes into account some relevant background information.

The second stage is scoping, which gives information on evaluation of scope (Ding, 2007).

The third stage is the environmental report. This stage leads to the creation of the draft plan and environmental report.

The fourth stage involves carrying out consultation on the plan of the project.

The fifth stage is the most vital since it entails integration of environmental considerations into the plan or program.

The final stage entails the publication of the strategic environmental assessment (Environmental Protection Agency, 2013).

One of the advantages of the strategic environmental assessment is that it ensures ownership of the whole project because various employees involved in the project are held accountable and liable for the various projects.

A major disadvantage of SEA is that the results can be biased since they will be based on the views of one person or a group of persons with vested interest. Thus, the results may not have a positive impact on the environment (Pischke&Cashmore, 2006; John, 2003).

Conclusion

In summary, it is evident that the three tools will provide information for decision making in the tidal power project. Along with the importance of the tolls, they possess a number of weaknesses.

First of all, they are expensive, seecondly, the results can be biased. Therefore, it is important to carry out an audit of all the results generated (Bina, 2007).

References

Bina, O. (2007). A critical review of the dominant lines of argumentation on the need for strategic environmental assessment.Environ. Impact Asses, 27 (5), 585–606.

Desimone, L. D., &Popoff, F. (2006). Eco-Efficiency: the Business Link to Sustainable Development. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Ding G. (2007). Sustainable construction—The role of environmental assessment tools. Journal of Environmental Management, 86 (3), 451–464

Environmental Protection Agency.(2013). Strategic environmental assessment. Web.

Eradas. (2011). The importance of sustainability and recycling. Web.

European Commission. (2012). Strategic environmental assessment – SEA. Web.

Fischer, T. (2007). Theory and Practice of Strategic Environmental Assessment: Towards a More Systematic Approach. London: Earthscan.

Inoquchi, T., Newman, E., & Paoletto. (2007). Cities and the Environment: New Approaches for Eco- societies. New York: United Nations University Press.

John, B. (2003). Roundtable: What is the alternative? Impact assessment tools and sustainable planning. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 21 (4), 261-280

Paola, G. (2011). Can environmental appraisal be truly interdisciplinary? Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 54 (9), 1189-1208.

Thomas, B.,&Vincent, O. (2012). Strategic environmental assessment-related research projects and journal articles: an overview of the past 20 years. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 30 (4), 253-263.

Keijzers, G. (2004). Business Government and Sustainable Development. New York: Routledge.

Nemetz, P. (2009). Bringing Business on Board: Sustainable Development and the School Curriculum.Journal of Business Administration and Policy Analysis, 3-19.

Pischke, F., &Cashmore, M. (2006). Decision-oriented environmental assessment: An empirical study of its theory and methods. Environ. Impact Asses, 26 (2), 643– 662.

The New Journalist. (2013). The importance of sustainability. Web.

The University of the South Pacific. (2013). Environmental impact assessment. Web.

UNC Chap Hill. (2005). Importance of sustainability. Web.

United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2013). What is sustainability? Web.

Van-der, P. (2007). A way out of the credibility crisis of models used in integrated environmental assessment. Futures, 34 (7), 133–146.

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