Environmental Management in Industries

Today many industries and companies have recognized the importance of proper environmental management and have switched over from traditional end‐of‐pipe solutions to the integration of environment management in overall management process of the industry. A few major driving forces for such changes are stringent legislation; demand for better work environment for employees; customers’ demands; company’s image; the growing pressure from all stakeholders regarding the environmental, economical, and social responsibilities. Environmental considerations are no longer regarded on ad‐hoc basis, rather these considerations form the part of industries’ everyday reality. Still, there is a lack of holistic approach where environment management is a natural part of overall management system. While the environmental departments are busy with generating reports and petitions for external purposes, the top management is not making use of the competence already present within the organization. The main objective is to focus on the application of various environmental tools and methods so that there could be a shift from reactive regulatory approach to proactive environmental decision making; there could be full support of top management on the environmental information system; and the environmental issues could be prioritized and the implementation could be accelerated. Ultimately, the integration of the environmental responsibility with the environmental systems and allocation of the resources needed shall lead to implementation of the environmental strategies and it can contribute to both improvements in the environmental performance and in increasing long‐term profitability of the industry.