Essay On Environmental Management

3. Literature review

3.1 Environmental Management

In most cases environmental management discussions has been centered on industries such as chemicals, petrochemical, and mining. Recently managers have come to realize that a large proportion and increasing amount of environmental risk stems from nearly on every company’s supply chain. When a company makes supply chain decisions such as which supplier to buy from, whether to implement vendor managed inventory or what method of distribution to use, they implicitly accepts the waste stream generated because of the decision (Handfield et al, 2003).

Increasingly companies have realized that environmental management is a key strategic issue awith the potential for a lasting impact on organizational

This will encourage every individual in an organization to adopt life cycle thinking approach to determine what environment impacts are.Eco-design means that the effect a product has on the environment should be considered and reduced at all stages along the product life cycle. These stages include the development of a product, its manufacturing, its marketing and supply chain, its use and finally its disposal (Webber et al, 2008).

5.2 Cleaner Production

Cleaner production can be defined as the continuous implementation of an integrated preventive environmental strategy to processes, products and services to increase overall efficiency, and to reduce risks to humans and the environment. Cleaner production can be applied to the processes used in any industry, to products themselves, and to various services provided in society (Toepfer et al, 2002).

The concept of cleaner production goes beyond pollution control strategies. It put together research and development into new structures, systems, processes, materials and product that are energy efficient. Cleaner production strategies reduces long-term liabilities which companies can face many years after pollution has been generated or disposed at a given site (Toepfer et al,