SBEV3103
FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
SEMESTER SEPTEMBER /2014
SBEV3103
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
SUSTAINABLE DVELOPMENT
MATRICULATION NO: 691115105407001IDENTITY CARD NO.:
691115105407TELEPHONE NO.: 012-3303294E-MAIL :
[email protected] CENTRE: Shah Alam
Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction3-4
2.0 Environment Regulatory Compliance5-8
3.0 Environment Risk Management8-12
4.0 Business and Sustainable Development12-15
5.0 Conclusion16
6.0 References ...16
1.0 INTRODUCTION Nowadays, all the countries in the world are
talking about development with the aim to bring their levels of
economic development with associated with social development, in
terms of education, healthcare and life expectancy.The development
will definitely bring the impact on the environment and now the
impact on environment is worsen with more and more issues arises
such like global warming, hole on the ozone layer of earth, reduces
of the species which will affect the earth ecology
system.Therefore, the sustainable development is become a major
attention to meets the needs of the present without comprising the
ability of the future generation to meets their own
needs.Sustainable development has been defined in many ways, the
most frequently quoted definition is from the Brundtland Report by
Bruntdland Commission in year 1987 Our Common Future: "Sustainable
development is development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs. It contains within it two key concepts:The concept
of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to
which overriding priority should be given; andThe idea of
limitations imposed by the state of technology and social
organization on the environment's ability to meet present and
future needs."All definitions of sustainable development require
that we see the world as a system that connects space and time.
When the world as a system over space, you will understand that air
pollution from Indonesia affects air quality in ASEAN and that the
ice melted in North Pole will cause the flood in Asia. When the
world as a system over time, you will realize that the decisions
our grandparents made about how to farm the land continue to affect
agricultural practice today; and the economic policies we endorse
today will have an impact when our children are adults.We also
understand that quality of life is a system and it is good to be
physically healthy, but what if you are poor and don't have access
to education? It's good to have a secure income, but what if the
air in your part of the world is unclean? And it's good to have
freedom of religious expression, but what if you can't feed your
family?It helps us understand ourselves and our world with the
concept of sustainable development is rooted in this sort of
systems thinking. The problems we face are complex and serious and
we can't address them in the same way we created them but we can
and need to address them. It's that basic optimism that motivates
us to innovate for a healthy and meaningful future for this planet
and its inhabitants.
2. ENVIRONMENT REGULATORY COMPLIANCE The government of Malaysia
has established the necessary legal and institutional arrangements
that the environment factors are considered at the early stage
project planning. Business or industry needs to obtain approval
from the second level of approval for environmental requirement and
assessment constitute on the licensing requirement once they
registered their business or industry. Business or industry is
required to comply with some form of licensing before they can
start legally and the licensing requirement is as follow:a) General
licenses such like Company Registration, Company and Employees Tax
registration and etc.b) Sector Industry Specific licenses unique
licenses to a particular industry by Government.c) Activity
Specific Licenses licenses that regulate particulars activity and
could be applicable to one or more Industries or Sectors.Besides of
the above basic licenses, the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
is required for activities prescribed under the Environmental
Quality (Prescribed Activities) (Environmental Impact Assessment)
Order 1987. Those industrial activities that are not subject to the
mandatory EIA requirements are nevertheless subject to various
regulations under the Environmental Quality Act, 1974 (EQA).In year
2002, Malaysia Government has form the National Policy on the
Environment which integrates the three elements of sustainable
development: economic, social and cultural development and
environmental conservation and aims at continued economic, social
and cultural progress and enhancement of the quality of life of
Malaysians through environmentally sound and sustainable
development. There are eight (8) inter-related and mutually
supporting principles set to harmonize economic development goals
with environmental imperatives as follow:-(a) Stewardship of the
Environment(b) Conservation of the Natures Vitality and
Diversity(c) Continuous Improvement in the Quality of the
Environment(d) Sustainable Use of Natural Resources(e) Integrated
Decision-making(f) Role of the Private Sector(g) Commitment and
Accountability(h) Active Participation in the International
CommunityThe Environmental Quality Act, 197 is the legislation that
is related to the prevention, abatement, control of pollution and
enhancement of the environment in Malaysia Under the Act,
industrial activities are required to obtain the following
approvals from the Director General of Environmental Quality prior
to project implementation as follow:(a) Environmental Impact
Assessment reports - under Section 34A of the EQA, 1974 (for
prescribed activities) Preliminary and detailed(b) Site suitability
evaluation (for non-prescribed activities);(c) Written permission
to construct - under Section 19 of the EQA, 1974 (for prescribed
premises-scheduled wastes treatment and disposal facilities, crude
palm oil mills and raw natural rubber processing mills);(d) Written
approval for installation of incinerator, fuel burning equipment
and chimney under Environmental Quality (Clean Air) Regulation,
1978, EQA, 1974; and(e) License to use and occupy prescribed
premises and prescribed conveyances - under Section 18 of the EQA,
1974. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT (EIA) FOR PRESCRIBED
ACTIVITIES. Figure 1 outlines the application procedure for
environmental requirements in Malaysia
The first level of environment system in Malaysia is the setting
up of the Environment Quality Act 1974, Environmental Impact
Assessment (EIA) is required for activities prescribed under the
Environmental Quality (Prescribed Activities) (Environmental Impact
Assessment) Order 1987 and in year 2002, the form the National
Policy on the Environment on sustainable development by the
Malaysia Government.The Second level of environment system has been
developing in the rapid pace which includes both the
organization-based and individual company-based programs. The
several examples of individual company-based programs are as
follow:a)ISO 14000 - issued by the International Organization of
Standardization(ISO),based in Geneva, Switzerland, covering areas
process documentation, training, lifecycle assessment procedure,
management reporting and accountability for environment
performance(Kleindorfer, 1977). It is required top management
commitment and designed to bring environmental management into
realm of strategic decision-making (Woelner, 1977). b)
Eco-Management Audit Scheme (EMAS) is set by European Union with
the closely related set of environmental requirement and standards.
The different between ISO 14000 and EMAS is that EMAS has
additional and more stringent requirements, in terms of requirement
of certification, specific information that be made public on
verifying continual performance (Kleindorfer, 1977).c)International
Chamber of Commerce (ICC) : Business Charter for Sustainable
Development created by ICC in 1991 in Rotterdam with sixteen
principles for environmental management which has been published in
over 20 languages including all the official language at the United
Nation.d)United Nation Environmental Programme (UNEP) created
Industry Environment Centre (UNEPIE) in 1975 and work with business
and industry, nation and local government, international group and
non-governmental organization. UNEPIE act as catalyst and providing
platform for dialogue to move from confrontation to co-operation
and words to concrete action.
We are definitely well aware of the environment regulatory as
per our Government act and regulation and the environmental
management system available for us. In order to comply with the
environment regulatory, the environment risk assessment on the
business activities need to be carried out. The environment risk
assessment covers the risk to all ecosystems, including humans,
exposed/impact via these media. After the identification of the
environment risk, the counter measure to control base on the
environment regulatory should be in place. Of course, the best
solution will be eliminated the risk if possible. This process will
lead the business or industry to choose the suitable environmental
management system in order to comply with the environment
regulatory.
3.0 ENVIRONMENT RISK MANAGEMENT
The environment risk assessment will be conducted to enable risk
managers make informed environmental decisions. The risk assessment
frame work is described as figure 2 as below:
Figure 2: Frame work of Management risk assessment Source:
US-EPA(1998)The results from the ERA are important and need to be
utilized in the managements decision making process. Figure 3 show
the elements that will be considered in deciding the control
measure or risk management.
Figure 3 : Elements for risk-based decision making processSource
: Beer and Ziolkowski.
The risk managers then need to decide the risk level that is
acceptable to public and select the policy and management which is
the best to obtain acceptable level of risk and maintaining
sustainability.Management is required to lower the risk to a
tolerable level of residual risk and the decision-maker has access
to a range of risk management options to reduce, eliminate or
exploit risk as zero risk is usually unachievable.One of the
methods is options appraisal - the process of identifying and
selecting the most appropriate risk management strategy given the
constraints of the decision-maker (HM Treasury, 2003). Various
criteria are used for identifying the best option which involve
scoring, weighting and/or reporting different risk management
options with, according to context, but a common framework is to
seek to maximize some long-term denition of human well-being such
as environmental security, net social benet or value for money
(risk reduction per unit cost). The key inputs for this process are
the controlling factors for each risk identied during the problem
formulation stage and if a controlling factor is the level of
investment in monitoring and control equipment, then risk
management options can be identied that focus on those issues
immediately.It is essential to identify the risk management options
as a distinct preliminary step because ill-considered risk
management strategies may otherwise result in wasted effort and
expenditure (HM Treasury, 2004). The risk management options
available usually take one of the following forms:a) terminates the
source of the risk where possible;b) mitigates the effects by
improving environmental management techniques or engineered
systems;c) transfers the risk through new technology, procedures or
investment;d) exploit the potential benets of the risk by embracing
new opportunities; ore) Accepts the risk by not intervening with
new or existing situations.
In order to select the preferred option, the potential positive
and negative effects associated with each option may be considered
under the following headings (Figure 4):a) Technical factors:
whether the options were likely to reduce the risk, by how much,
and how difcult it would be to implement the option; for example,
the extent of required research and development.b) Economic
factors: the cost of implementing the option (to the organization,
affected businesses, exposed groups or society as a whole).c)
Environmental security: the potential impacts of the options on the
health and sustainability of environmental resources including the
impact to existing habitats.d) Social issues: the social impacts of
the risk, such as the potential costs or other losses to the
community, jobs or house prices, life expectancy and/or
amenities.e) Organizational capabilities: considering the risk
management capability within the organization or body, or the
capability of society or exposed groups.
Figure 4 : Positive and Negative Environmental Effect
With the above strategic and selection option, the best
environmental system management can be established to mitigate and
control the environment issue and achieve the sustainable
development.
4.0 BUSINESS AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
The concept of sustainable development has received growing
recognition, but it is a new idea for many business executives.
Organization is protecting its capital base is a well-accepted
business principle and generally it do not recognize the
possibility of extending this notion to the worlds natural and
human resources.
Businesses enterprises must integrate into the planning and
measurement systems tom achieve sustainable development and for
that to happen, the concept must be articulated in terms that are
familiar to business leaders.
Therefore, the definition as follow is suggested:
For the business enterprise, sustainable development means
adopting business strategies and activities that meet the needs of
the enterprise and its stakeholders today while protecting,
sustaining and enhancing the human and natural resources that will
be needed in the future.
This definition is intended to help business directors apply the
concept of sustainable development to their own organizations.
However, it is important to emphasize that sustainable development
cannot be achieved by a single enterprise in isolation. Sustainable
development is a pervasive philosophy to which every participant in
the global economy (including consumers and government) must
subscribe, if we are to meet todays needs without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own. This definition
also highlights businesss dependence on human and natural resources
and further emphasizes that economic activity must not irreparably
degrade or destroy these natural and human resources.
The role of business in contributing to sustainable development
remains indefinite and all business enterprises can make a
contribution towards its attainment but the ability to make a
difference varies by sector and organization size.
Seven steps are required for managing an enterprise according to
sustainable development principles. These are set out below.
a) Perform a stakeholder analysisA stakeholder analysis is
required in order to identify all the parties that are directly or
indirectly affected by the enterprises operations. It sets out the
issues, concerns and information needs of the stakeholders with
respect to the organizations sustainable development
activities.
b) Set sustainable development policies and objectivesThe next
objective is to articulate the basic values that the enterprise
expects its employees to follow with respect to sustainable
development to set targets for operating performance by the Senior
Management to formulating a sustainable development policy for its
organization as the sustainable development means more than just
the environment. It has social elements as well, such as the
alleviation of poverty and distributional equity.
c). Design and execute an implementation planIt is important to
draw up a plan for the management system changes that are needed in
order to achieve sustainable development objectives and the
enterprises organizational structure should then be reviewed to
determine who should take specific responsibility for the
sustainable development objectives.
Business planning processes should be modified to reflect the
sustainable development priorities, the expanded stakeholder
consultation process and external monitoring needs. Management
information systems should be enhanced, in order to ensure that
management and employees receive the information they need to
assess their performance against the objectives.
A successful implementation plan depends on rethinking the
corporation if it is to respond to the paradigm shift associated
with sustainable development. It is important to address not only
the positive forces for change but also barriers and sources of
resistance.
d) Develop a supportive corporate cultureIn order to ensure that
the organization and its people give their backing to the
sustainable development policies, an appropriate corporate culture
is essential and the board provides an oversight in the allocation
of responsibilities for sustainable development objectives. This
umbrella role should include ensuring that responsibilities are
assigned in a manner that holds key executives accountable. It also
means ensuring that reward and promotion systems recognize those
people who achieve, or help to achieve, sustainable development
objectives.
e) Develop measures and standards of performanceThe
implementation of sustainable development objectives and the
preparation of reports on performance are required for measuring
performance and monitoring the progress of the organization
objectives.
f) Prepare reports
The next step in the process is to develop meaningful reports
for internal management and stakeholders, outlining the enterprises
sustainable development objectives and comparing performance
against them.
g) Enhance internal monitoring processesPerformance monitoring
is well established as an important element of the management
process. In many areas, it is directly linked to reporting. The key
to any systems effectiveness is whether the management monitors
operations and outputs on an ongoing basis.
Monitoring can take many forms, such as: Reviewing reports
submitted by middle managers; Touring operating sites and observing
employees performing their duties; Holding regular meetings with
subordinates to review reports and to seek input on how the
procedures and reporting systems might be improved; Implementing an
environmental auditing programme.
The figure 5 is well described the relation of business and
sustainable development and the impact on the human being and
environment.
Figure 5: Business and Sustainable Development5.0 CONCLUSIONIn
view of the above, development is essential to our society and
development will lead to business opportunities. Business will
create wealth and in order to achieve to grab the wealth, the
impact on human being and environment will be ignored. The
continuous ignorance of the environmental issue will lead to the
disaster to the earth ecology system and we might end up with
nothing to our next generation. The concept of sustainable
development is to mitigate and minimize the above impact with the
objective of development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs. Lets start to maintain and exercise the
sustainable development and it is achievable if we planned and
execute accordingly.-2947 words-
6.0 References
1.
www.doe.gov.my/eia/wp-content/uploads/2012/13/a-Guide-For-Investors1.pdf2.
Md. Jahir, Jamaluddin (1996). Environmental Legislations and its
management in Malaysia: issues and suggestions. 3. The Geneva
Papers on Risk and Insurance Vol. 27 no. 2 (April 2002) Pages
152-1804. www.defra.gov.uk : Green Leaves III, November 20115.
www.iisd.org : Business StrategyPage 1 of 16
Figure 1 APPLICATION PROCEDURE FOR ENVIRONMENTALREQUIREMENTS IN
MALAYSIA
STEP 1 x Site Suitability
Evaluation (for non-Prescribed Activities).
x EIA Approval (for Prescribed Activities).
STEP 2 Activities subject to air and water pollution control: x
Written Permission
(Air). x Written Notification
(Sewage, Industrial Effluent, Leachate).
x Written Approval (Prescribed Premises: Crude Palm Oil Mills,
Raw Natural Rubber Mills, Scheduled Wastes Facilities)
STEP 3 Licence to occupy: x Crude Palm Oil Mills. x Raw Natural
Rubber
Factories. x Scheduled Waste
Treatment and Disposal Activities
x Prescribed Conveyance
TOPIC 2 ENVIRONMENTAL RISK ASSESSMENT
27
(c) Phase Three This is the last phase called RRisk
Characterisation. This analysis combines ecological effects and
environmental concentration to provide likelihood of effects given
the distribution of a stressor within an ecosystem. The analysis is
composed of two parts:
(i) Risk estimation; and
(ii) Risk description.
Figure 2.3: Framework for environmental risk assessment
Source: US-EPA (1998)
TOPIC 2 ENVIRONMENTAL RISK ASSESSMENT
29
MANAGING RISK FOR SUSTAINABILITY
Results from the ERA are important and need to be utilised in
the managements decision-making process. Risk management is what we
engage in to reduce risk based on the assessment findings. Figure
2.4 shows the elements that will be considered in deciding what
measures need to be developed for risk management. The decision
made should prioritise the need for sustainability, balancing the
need in three main sectors, namely, for economy and social purposes
as well as for the environment. Referring to the options suggested
from the ERA, a review of the risk policy and management options
are required to minimise the risk to an acceptable level. Here, the
review focuses on two major tasks, where decision makers have to:
(a) Decide to what level the risk is acceptable to the public;
and
(b) Select which policy and management options are the best to
obtain the acceptable level of risk while maintaining
sustainability.
Figure 2.4: Elements for risk-based decision making process
Source: Beer and Ziolkowski (1995)
2.3
TOPIC 2 ENVIRONMENTAL RISK ASSESSMENT
31
(d) Exploit the potential benefits of the risk by embracing new
opportunities; or
(e) Accept the risk by not intervening with new or existing
situations. To select the preferred option, the potential positive
and negative effects associated with each option may be considered
under the headings shown in Figure 2.6:
Figure 2.6: Positive and negative environmental effects
(a) Economic Factors The cost of implementing the option (to the
organisation, affected
businesses, exposed groups or society as a whole). (b) Technical
Factors Whether the options are likely to reduce the risk, by how
much, and how
difficult it would be to implement the option (for example, the
extent of required research and development).
(c) Environmental Security The potential impact of the options
on the health and sustainability of
environmental resources including the impact to existing
habitats. (d) Social Issues The social impacts of the risk, such as
the potential costs or other losses to
the community, jobs or house prices, life expectancy and/or
amenities. (e) Organisational Capabilities This takes into
consideration the risk management capability within the
organisation or body, or the capability of society or exposed
groups.