With the advent of increased environmental regulation and high
penalties for non-compliance in many countries, there has grown
a need for all industries to assess their risk with respect to
environmental compliance and consequently develop
management systems which ensure environmental compliance
and sound environmental practice. The need to better assess and
manage environmental risk has developed rapidly as legal and
financial penalties have increased for inappropriate management
of the environment. The mechanism that industry has developed
to manage risk is through the use of environmental management
systems. These environmental management systems are
generally based on the principles of total quality management.
For example the British Standard BS7750 (Specification for
Environmental Management System) shares common
management system principles with ISO 9000 quality
management systems. The same trends of increased environmental regulation and
higher penalties for environmental impairment are now evident in
Australia where environmental management systems are now
being introduced. With increased penalties for environmental
impairment and greater responsibility of managers and directors,
environmental management systems are likely to become even
more common in Australia. This paper describes some of the influences directing
environmental management within the Australian industrial and
mining environment, describes the elements of an environmental
management system and relates these to the mining industry.