Urban Environmental Management
Cities, EMS and Everything
Putting up a Green Front
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EMS in the Public Sector
Case Studies and Examples
  . Local governments are developing EMSs for a variety of reasons - to ensure regulatory compliance, to take care of requirements and requests from customers and other stakeholders, avoid micro-management and deal with bigger picture items (including a shift from end-of-pipe solutions to more upstream management of environmental problems), to develop a systematic approach to integrate with health and safety, and also to show leadership in environmental performance.

EMSs developed by local governments are unique. They begin their work within a mandate to enhance quality of life. It also includes concerns and issues from the public and other stakeholders such as environmental NGOs. Due to its wide coverage, an urban EMS inevitably has overlap between jurisdictional responsibilities of departments of a local government. Unlike a private company or business, local governments actually work with limited resources for implementing an EMS.

Many municipalities are implementing EMSs. Some currently pursuing ISO 14001 certification, while others aredeveloping their system based on ISO 14001, with no intention of certification (self-declaration or self-certification).

The following contains case studies and examples of local governments, public sector companies and other public institutions that have adopted the ISO14001 standard to develop an environmental management system. Links to programmes promoting EMSs and ISO14001 are also included.

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Contact: Hari Srinivas - hsrinivas@gdrc.org