Despite the perceived ‘perfect fix’ of the EMS, ISO 14001 and EMAS are often criticised for being designed by and for producing companies. One instance of this is that there is little to no provision for how to manage indirect environmental impacts within these system standards. For organisations which fall under the category of the service sector, it is often the indirect environmental impacts which are of most significance for their core activities. However, it...
Despite the perceived ‘perfect fix’ of the EMS, ISO 14001 and EMAS are often criticised for being designed by and for producing companies. One instance of this is that there is little to no provision for how to manage indirect environmental impacts within these system standards. For organisations which fall under the category of the service sector, it is often the indirect environmental impacts which are of most significance for their core activities. However, it has proven difficult to deal with this impact for example due to its complexity and difficulty to measure and follow up. There is no strict definition of indirect environmental impact within ISO 14001 or in EMAS. Although ISO 14001 attempts to describe it as: “Indirect environmental impact constitutes any change to the environment, whether adverse or beneficial, wholly or partially resulting from an element of an organization’s activities or products or services, influencing other actors’ prerequisites to perform their activities.”