EMS DEFINITIONS
Activities,
Products, and Services - A catch-all phrase that
was developed by Technical Committee 207of ISO, to capture
all of the things at a facility or organization that can interact
with the environment.
Environment - Surroundings in which an organization operates,
including air, water, land, natural resources, flora, fauna,
humans, and their interrelation.
Environmental Aspect - Elements of an organization’s
activities, products, or services that can interact with the
environment. (The environmental aspect of an activity is that
part of it that creates a possibility for an environmental
impact. As such, it is equivalent to the concept of “hazard”,
in safety, which is also defined as the mere possibility
of a negative event.)
Environmental Impact - Change to the environment, whether
adverse or beneficial, wholly or partially resulting from
an organization’s
activities, products or services.
Environmental Management System - The part of the overall management
system that includes organizational structure, planning activities,
responsibilities, practices, procedures, processes, and resources
for developing, integrating, achieving, reviewing and maintaining
environmental policy.
Environmental Objective - Overall environmental goal arising
from the environmental policy that an organization sets
to achieve and which is quantified where practicable”
Environmental Performance - Measurable results of the environmental
management system, related to an organization’s control
of its environmental aspects, based on its environmental
policy, objectives and targets.
Environmental Target - Detailed performance requirement, quantified
where practicable, applicable to the organization or parts
thereof, that arises from the environmental objectives and
that needs to be set and met in order to achieve those objectives.
Likelihood - Likelihood is a measure of how often an aspect
can be expected to occur within an activity given the probability
of its occurrence for each repetition of the activity and the
frequency of the activity over time.
Organization - Company, corporation, firm, enterprise, authority
or institution, or part or combination thereof, whether incorporated
or not, public or private, that has its own functions and administration.
Potential Environmental Impact - The potential environmental
impact of an aspect is defined by its likelihood of occurrence
and likely consequences. It is equivalent to the concept
of “risk”,
in safety, which assigns a probability and consequence to the
possible negative event that may result from a “hazard.”
Significant Environmental Aspect - This is an environmental
aspect that has or can have a significant impact on the environment,
the organization, or to the mission of the organization.
Senior Management - That level of management that has executive
jurisdiction over the EMS, including the full authority to
allocate appropriate resources for its execution.
Sustainability - An economic, social, and environmental concept. An Environmental Management System (EMS) is built around identifying, prioritizing, controlling, and improving those elements of an organization that interact with the environment. This is achieved by developing procedures to reduce the impact an organization's activities, products, or services have on the environment.