Environmental management systems need leadership

Environmental management systems need leadership

For environmental management systems to provide long-term and consistent benefits to organizations, they need to have strong leadership.

Leadership is needed from the very top of the organization, preferably from more than one sponsor. Objectives agreed at the highest level of the organization are more likely to support organizational strategy, and required resources are more likely to be made available.

It is not a coincidence that the ISO 14001:2015 standard requires integration with organizational strategy and greater leadership from top management; without it, environmental management systems often falter.

The other level at which leadership is critical is in the establishment, implementation and maintenance of the environmental management system. If you don’t have more than one person who understands and can access and update the system, you risk the system failing when that person is no longer available to keep it going.

In the last ten days alone, I have seen three cases of environmental management systems faltering, and even beginning to fail, because of one of these two leadership issues.

Quest for Future Solutions conducts directors’ briefings and supports organizations to help them gain ongoing value from their environmental and energy management systems – contact Julia on 07904 389889 to talk about how we can help your organization.

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