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TERMS AND DEFINITIONS by Simo Isoaho and Mikko Koskensyrjä Continuous improvement Taking actions in order to prevent the problems to occur ever again; a ongoing process of striving excellent performance. Continuous improvement is a common element of many management systems and risk management. EXAMPLE: A company plans to reduce its consumption of electricity by 10% this year by installing automatic switches to lighting – previously the lamps were on all day whether there was anybody working or not. Next year the company plans to reduce another 10% of its electricity consumption by replacing some old-fashioned machines with newer ones that consume less. On third year, the electricity consumption can still be reduced by 10% if the company installs energy-saving lamps and replaces the electric heating used in some facilities with district heating. Instead of taking all measures at once, the company decides take several steps in order to improve its environmental performance. Eco-efficiency EXAMPLE: A plastic company used to discard approx. 20 % of its products because they did not pass the strict quality inspection. Later, the company bought a crusher and can use discarded and crushed products as its raw material. Now the company buys plastic 20% less than before and is more eco-efficient. Environmental aspect EXAMPLES: Emissions to air; discharges to water; solid and other wastes; contamination of land; use of land, water, fuels and energy and other natural resources; discharges of thermal energy, noise, odour, dust, vibration and visual impact; effects on different parts of the environment and ecosystem. Environmental audit Environmental condition indicator (ECI)
EXAMPLES: Noise levels; odour; concentrations of specific substances in water, air, soil or specific animal or plant species; land use (area); population of particular plant species; incidence of specific diseases in regional inhabitants Environmental communication Environmental management Environmental management system (EMS) EXAMPLES: ISO 14000 and EMAS Environmental performance Environmental performance indicator (EPI) EXAMPLES: MPIs include e.g. number of achieved objects and targets in EMS, number of audit findings, savings achieved through reduction in resource usage, prevention of pollution or waste recycling environmental investments, number of inquiries or comments about environmentally related matters. OPIs include e.g. material and energy inputs, operational efficiency and product and waste outputs. Environmental risk Functional Unit EXAMPLE: A company produces lawn mowers. The reference unit can be one lawn mower (product) or mowing 100 m2 lawn for one year (service). If the lawn mower can cut 15.000 m2 of grass during its life time and we need to cut the grass 30 times a year, the service of mowing 100 m2 lawn for one year requires 30*100/15.000 = 0,2 lawn mowers. If the lawn mower is motored, the service requires also petrol and lubrication oil. Selecting service instead of a product makes it easier to compare different products that provide similar services, e.g. motored and manual lawn mowers or even a goat. Hazard EXAMPLE: Hazardous chemicals are hazard sources, whether they are used by the company or not. Handling hazardous chemicals is an example of hazardous situation. Indicator EXAMPLE: Annual grain production in a specified area. Unit of measurement can be selected to be e.g. tons/year, US$/year, or % (with this year's production (tons) as the nominator and the reference year's production (tons) as the denominator). (Environmental) Life cycle EXAMPLE: Product's life has four stages:
Linking the material and energy inputs and outputs for each stage provides the life cycle of the product. Life cycle assessment Risk EXAMPLE: The company stores several bottles of acetylene. If the temperature in the storage rises considerably, the bottles could explode. The temperature could rise to the required level if a district heat pipe bursts. The probability of district heat pipe eruption is very small but the consequences could be very serious: many people could be killed in the explosion and the fire would destroy the whole storage area. There are also other hazards sources that could make the acetylene bottles to explode, e.g. mishandling and collision with a truck. If the probability of these other hazard sources and the magnitude of their consequences are estimated, they can be called risks. Risk management Sustainability or Sustainable development Quality Shareholder Stakeholder SWOT analysis Total quality Total quality management (TQM) |
