Over twenty years of history of standardization of environmental management systems (EMS) have not been enough to slow the worsening of environmental problems. The same 2004 revision of ISO 14001 has failed to grasp the urgency of the necessary changes, so that certified organizations could make a meaningful contribution to limit their environmental impacts. Instead, this need is clearly highlighted by the 2015 version of the same standard, in which the emphasis is placed firmly on the "environmental protection", as opposed to the previous approach that targeted the "pollution prevention". This new approach takes the form in the adoption of three key concepts that characterize the implementation of the new EMS: to operate in the "Life Cycle Perspective", to analyse the "context" of the organization, to integrate in EMS of the "risks and opportunities" to the environment and to the organization. The objective of this paper is to understand how much some highlights of risk management introduced by 15014001:2015 were already perceived as "important" by organizations certified in the previous version of the stan_dard. The study analyzes the resull<; of a survey conducted by administering a questionnaire to all the ISO 14001:2004 certified organizations of the province of Foggia (Apulia region, Italy). The analysis was carried out using a consolidated multi-criteria methodology, called "Analytic Hierarchy Process" (AHP). The survey results show that aspects closely related to the "risk management" are generally rated as minor, with the exception of "substitution of materials harmful to the environment with other more environmentally friendly". It should be emphasized that the resull<; are relevant to the type of companies surveyed. Therefore, the AHP, allowing all the stakeholders to assess the degree of understanding of the elements of risk management, if properly used, could better guide the "decision-makers" in strategic decision-making aimed at "managing" the identified risks.

Risk Management: a Proposal for the Practice of the "New" ISO14001:2015

Nicoletti Giuseppe Martino
Writing – Original Draft Preparation
2016-01-01

Abstract

Over twenty years of history of standardization of environmental management systems (EMS) have not been enough to slow the worsening of environmental problems. The same 2004 revision of ISO 14001 has failed to grasp the urgency of the necessary changes, so that certified organizations could make a meaningful contribution to limit their environmental impacts. Instead, this need is clearly highlighted by the 2015 version of the same standard, in which the emphasis is placed firmly on the "environmental protection", as opposed to the previous approach that targeted the "pollution prevention". This new approach takes the form in the adoption of three key concepts that characterize the implementation of the new EMS: to operate in the "Life Cycle Perspective", to analyse the "context" of the organization, to integrate in EMS of the "risks and opportunities" to the environment and to the organization. The objective of this paper is to understand how much some highlights of risk management introduced by 15014001:2015 were already perceived as "important" by organizations certified in the previous version of the stan_dard. The study analyzes the resull<; of a survey conducted by administering a questionnaire to all the ISO 14001:2004 certified organizations of the province of Foggia (Apulia region, Italy). The analysis was carried out using a consolidated multi-criteria methodology, called "Analytic Hierarchy Process" (AHP). The survey results show that aspects closely related to the "risk management" are generally rated as minor, with the exception of "substitution of materials harmful to the environment with other more environmentally friendly". It should be emphasized that the resull<; are relevant to the type of companies surveyed. Therefore, the AHP, allowing all the stakeholders to assess the degree of understanding of the elements of risk management, if properly used, could better guide the "decision-makers" in strategic decision-making aimed at "managing" the identified risks.
2016
9780077180171
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11369/399889
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