Online environmental management tool for businesses

Understanding and managing regulatory obligations is a challenge for many businesses. A recent national industry survey by Ai Group found that reducing regulatory burden is the second-highest priority for Australian businesses and the number-one priority for small businesses.

To help businesses streamline and improve environmental compliance, the Plastics and Chemicals Industries Association (PACIA) has released its easy-to-use online Environmental Management Wizard to help businesses self-assess environmental obligations, and in doing so reveal opportunities to reduce risks, reduce costs and enhance business performance.

Developed through a strategic partnership between PACIA and EPA Victoria, the online tool is suitable for all types and sizes of manufacturing businesses. It is a comprehensive yet flexible, taking only 15-30 minutes to complete. It can be completed in parts and saved for later and logon details can be shared with others to help complete sections. The sections can also be returned to and updated as more information comes to hand.

Initially built for businesses in Victoria, it will soon be expanded to cover other jurisdictions.

The Wizard provides an exportable report to identify and track compliance obligations and show where environmental management may need further attention or where more knowledge and information is needed. It covers all aspects of environmental management including emissions to air, energy and resource management, water and waste water, waste, amenity, hazardous materials, transport and soil and groundwater.

Many environmental regulations can be difficult to understand, and with a range of national, state and local procedures to potentially navigate, it can sometimes end up on the perpetual to-do list.

Part of the issue for small and medium businesses in particular is that they don’t have people with the time or skills to know what compliance obligations they have, let alone actively manage them. For companies with a limited environmental management system, the Wizard helps users to understand regulatory issues and cultivate staff engagement, knowledge and skills. For those with well-developed environmental management systems, it is a comprehensive evaluation tool that can be applied to test all or part of current environmental regulatory performance.

For further details, visit http://www.pacia.org.au/programs/environmentalmanagementwizard.