External review of Redland City Council’s Environmental Management System to identify opportunities that improve their environmental management decisions.
The situation
Advisian conducted an external review of Redland Council’s Environmental Management System (EMS) to provide an assessment of the system’s current status and determine what opportunities exist for the EMS to provide increased value to the organisation.
Our approach
The project identified the EMS’s opportunities for improvement, as well as, examined the environmental risks and whether they are being adequately managed.
As an outcome of the review, a strategy, with actions to advance the effectiveness and value provided by the EMS across Council, was developed.
The method adopted was:
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Identify EMS issues and provide analysis, recommendations and an action plan
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Provide a rapid assessment of the current status of the EMS and level of conformance against international standard AS/NZS ISO 14001:2016
Key findings
To enable the EMS to be more effective and comprehensively adopted across Council, it can be updated to become more relevant, more beneficial and, above all, easy to use. More than 100 recommendations were developed as part of a strategy to drive improvements in the business and to make the EMS more effective.
Results
There’s an opportunity for Council to enable change throughout the organisation, and update the EMS to make it more central and also ensure it is relevant and easy for staff to use.
Through utilising existing resources and building upon existing knowledge, the EMS can be updated to assist Council staff to make improved environmental management decisions by way of identifying environmental values, key environmental risks, developing better self-help tools and collaborating on solutions.
