Facilitating environmental management through a proactive approach.
Summary
To develop a methodology and associated guidelines for :-
(i) The assessment of the human resource aspects of an organisation with particular reference to environmental management.
(ii) The development of appropriate strategies for environmental management taking account of the outcome of the assessment stage in (i) above.
The Research Team
Mr. Noel Connaughton Principal Researcher Department of Science, IT, Sligo. Ms. Pamela McDonnell Joint Researcher Department of Science, IT, Sligo.
Background
Environmental management requires organisations to arrange their environmental affairs in a proactive manner with a focus on prevention.
There are a number of international standards available and associated guidelines that offer guidance to individual and organisations on how to carry out the mainly technical parts of the process. While these standards and guidelines emphasise the critical importance of getting all individuals in the organisation involved in the process, there is an absence of any detailed guidelines on how this might be achieved.
Project Details
Literature Review of the following areas:-
General Management and human resource management issues associated with individual and group participation in an organisation, with particular reference to environmental management.
Best international practice in the following areas:-
- Establishing and sustaining individual and team participation
- Efficient and effective communications
- Creating and maintaining environmental awareness
- Establishing an maintaining appropriate training programmes in the environmental area.
Through IT Sligo’s involvement in an EPA sponsored Cleaner Greener Production Programme (CGPP) with Sligo General Hospital. It is proposed to carry out a number of studies which include:-
Reviewing general management and human resource issues associated with environmental management at the hospital.
Developing a number of environmental management projects with a focus on pollution prevention
Assessing individuals and teams in achieving their tasks.
To carry out a series of surveys at the hospital in order to :-
Determine the level of environmental awareness in the hospital before and after the project implementation.
Assess the level of interest in environmental matters throughout the organisation.
Determine the current environmental issues and how individuals in the organisation believe they may be solved.
Assess the issues associated with individuals and teams working on various environmental projects
Take suggestions from individuals in the organisation on how the implementation process may be improved.
To examine how participation is achieved in other organisations, it is proposed to carry out surveys of :-
- ISO and EMAS registered organisations
- Organisations and environmental and legislative issues but without an environmental management system.
Information gathered from this project will be critically evaluated and the practical issues associated with encouraging participation will be assessed. From this, guidelines will be developed to facilitate participation in environmental management and encourage organisational self learning.