At this workshop we will present and discuss information related to Agricultural Environmental Management Systems. We're talking about management systems, something that producers use all the time. Environmental Management Systems simply build in recognition of the environmental aspects of different management decisions and support designing a plan to prevent pollution.
This project, The Partnerships for Livestock Environmental Management Systems, is funded through the Initiative for Future Agriculture and Food Systems, with some additional support from US EPA, Office of Nonpoint Source Pollution, and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (Environmental Quality Improvement Projects).
Why was the project proposed? As we worked with the national Farm Assessment System, (Farm*A*Syst) we developed environmental risk assessment tools that are being used by producers. However, Farm*A*Syst has a limited technical support base that we felt needed to be expanded.
Farm*A*Syst is one of the foundation stones we're building this project on. There are two primary others. In 1996, the International Organization for Standardization published ISO 14001, which is the standard for Environmental Management Systems. Rick Koelsch is leading a team to develop a livestock and poultry environmental stewardship curriculum, which has a strong research foundation. By linking Farm*A*Syst, the livestock and poultry environmental stewardship curriculum, and private sector initiatives, we felt we could strengthen materials and programs that support voluntary agricultural pollution prevention efforts.
Our overall goal is to evaluate livestock environmental management assessment systems as tools to address local priority environmental issues. The objectives are to:
The main premise for this meeting here is that stakeholder input is needed to develop an environmental management system that is seen as practical and acceptable by producers. This project is not worth doing if it's not also seen as being credible and functional by producers and the agencies and organizations that are responsible for environmental policies. The feedback from the mixed group of people that we have here today will help lay a foundation that will produce a credible and functional environmental management system.
The process for today's meeting and for our overall project, aims to build an understanding of what is an environmental management system and its potential use in identifying and addressing site-specific agricultural environmental management needs. Terminology, or semantics, can get in our way. As we're working with producers and the agricultural community, environmental management systems is new terminology. We've been talking about conservation plans for decades, ever since the soil conservation service was created. Now all of a sudden we're starting to talk about environmental management systems. What are the differences? How do they fit together? Why are we talking about that? That's something that we may need to resolve, as well as how we move forward in communicating this concept to producers. I mentioned that we want to establish a credible foundation for environmental management systems. That's what I think we're about, introducing this new concept, and this terminology, for colleagues as well as for producers, and then exploring how it might work.
Now, I want to step back and provide some basic information about environmental management systems. I know this is going to be very rudimentary to many people in the room who already have a good understanding, or extensive work experiences with environmental management systems. In other cases we're talking with folks for whom this is new. Before we have group discussions on potential uses of environmental management systems in agriculture, we want to provide basic information that gives everyone a common starting point. So, bear with me as I go through some very basic information about environmental management systems.
As I mentioned earlier, the International Organization for Standardization created an Environmental Management System (EMS) standard, ISO 14001. ISO standards are developed primarily for the purpose of facilitating international exchange of goods. Some nations believe that environmental management criteria should and will become an important part of international trade for agricultural products. So, as we put this IFAFS project together, we're looking at designing materials that are consistent with the criteria in ISO 14001.
An environmental management system is a systematic approach to identifying and managing environmental aspects of organizations, any organization. The ISO standards provide criteria that are designed to enable an organization of any size or type to manage the impacts of its activities, products and services on the environment. The fact that this standard was designed for any size and type of organization makes it as relevant in agriculture as in any other industry, and maybe even more so. How will we design a system that works with small producers as well as large producers? What are the incentives for each to work?
ISO 14001 is an international voluntary environmental management standard. It's not regulatory. It defines an EMS as: "the organizational structure, responsibilities, practices, procedures, processes and resources for implementing environmental management." It says you look at the whole operating system and identify environmental risks and the actions necessary to address them.
Of the core elements of the environmental management system, one of the things that most producers may not have done for their farm or their operation is to really think about, "What is my personal or farm policy relating to the environment?" Much of this has been done in people's minds, but very seldom is it put on paper. The EMS helps people think through, "What is the policy that I have personally, or my business has, related to the environment and environmental requirements?" The second element entails conducting an assessment of environmental risks related to your inputs, your processes and the outputs that come from the operation, then using that assessment as part of the planning process to identify where the risks are, identify what kinds of actions can be taken to address those risks, provide an implementation and operation framework to move forward, and provide for periodic checking and corrective actions. In other words, environmental aspects are identified for all activities. This includes identifying regulatory requirements and determining the compliance, or non-compliance with those requirements. The assessment supports organizing the site-specific information into a voluntary action plan that supports continual improvement to prevent pollution and comply with regulations. This concept of continual improvement is a core element in environmental management systems design.
Implementation and operation elements of the EMS plan define the communication responsibilities among and between farm managers and employees. It sets out the procedures for both the internal and external communication, and identifies procedures for documentation of actions. If there is an area that the agriculture community could really benefit from, it's doing a better job of documenting all the good work that's being done and has been done. I've been working in this water quality arena since 1978, and if we could have documented all the changes that have occurred since '78 until now, we could show that many areas have seen substantial reduction of pollution risk.
The checking and corrective action stage is the process of monitoring key activities that have significant environmental impact. This supports identifying areas where the management structure is not producing positive actions and where additional activity may be needed.
Management review assures that the EMS continues to be relevant and it is being effective. If it's not relevant any longer because of changes in policy, or because you've already addressed the issue, you make modifications and you may have a change of objectives. It all boils down to a basic circle of plan, do, check, and act to support continual improvement.
An EMS, environmental management system, provides a framework that supports both economic and environmental improvements of an enterprise. It's interesting to note that the ISO 14001 standard was developed after the ISO 9000 and the 9000 standard is a quality control standard. These standards have a parallel design. Both standards provide certification criteria. ISO 14001 certification of agricultural operations will certify that the produce or products from that producer have been produced under sound environmental management. Public demand for documentation of the use of sound environmental management could drive this type of program in the future.
For an agricultural environmental management system to be acceptable to producers, producers need to see that there's something in it for them. That could be an increase in market access or profitability, or recognition that some of these changes can help protect the health and well being of their family and their livestock. In some situations use of environmental management systems can result in reduced environmental liability insurance rates. In other cases it could result in more flexibility in meeting regulatory requirements. So, from that standpoint we need to evaluate how agricultural EMSs change farm management, how they influence insurance premiums, liability and regulatory risks, access to credit and insurance, and importantly how they influence neighbors and enhance public confidence that producers are using sound environmental management practices.
The Partnerships For Livestock Environmental Management Systems project has developed several premises that we want this stakeholder group to look at. There is limited information on the benefits of environmental management systems to agriculture. It is generally believed this system will support both economic and environmental improvements. In this project we will evaluate the effectiveness and impacts of EMS development and decision support materials that are provided to producers.
A workgroup has been designing improved environmental assessment tools. Rick Koelsch is coordinating that workgroup. A draft of a more detailed assessment that would be used with a trained consultant is available for you to review and comment on. Part of having a good, strong program is having good functional tools, and that's a major area we're working on. Your feedback on these tools will be important in determining their final design.
Another area the project is emphasizing is to build partnerships that involve producers, the industries, and agency representatives. These partnerships need to start identifying areas of common need and common benefit. But if we can build strong partnerships and work together to develop and deliver common messages, the project will move forward constructively.
In good partnerships, each partner is aware of "what's in it for them". Regulatory agencies may believe it will improve compliance with regulations, or reduce the need for more regulations. Producers may want this program to improve the public's understanding of how agriculture impacts the environment and the positive actions that are being taken. Education and technical assistance agencies may see this as an effective vehicle for implementing and documenting the benefits of voluntary programs.
The partnerships required for future success of agricultural environmental management systems will involve farm organizations, and agribusiness, and they will also need to identify "what's in it for us?" Will it help to maintain or improve agriculture's product image? Will it increase the public's confidence in their corporation? Will it improve the public's valuation of them if it documents environmental stewardship? And is this certification process something that merits pursuit in the future? These are factors that may influence the private sector in becoming a long-term partner in this process.
The data that come out of these efforts to implement site-specific EMSs are very important. From the standpoint of producers, the data provide the foundation for them to design their voluntary action plan. For agencies, those data provide feedback on research needs and support needs. For the industry, this program should reveal what kind of support system, what products and services we as consultants, as suppliers, can offer to help make this work. And from a policy perspective, this project will help identify what kind of a government program or staffing support framework can be put in place to achieve policy objectives if in fact it appears that livestock EMSs will be widely functional?
We need Environmental Management Systems to remove barriers to cooperation, increase awareness of environmental risk from the standpoint of producers, reduce liability, provide for regulatory flexibility, and build partnerships for pollution solutions. To get there, we need to build solid, functional partnerships, develop effective, credible, and acceptable tools to support accurate identification of environmental risks, and provide a support system that results in local ownership and local delivery capacity.
This project will also develop an interactive online assessment. It will be located at our home page. (http://www.uwex.edu/AgEMS/livestock) This site is intended to allow you to access current information about this project at anytime. Please use it and provide us with your feedback.
In summary, this project will develop core assessment and EMS action tools and explore the role of private/public partnerships in implementation. We will evaluate the effectiveness of different delivery approaches, and support integration of agricultural environmental management systems into the programs and policies of agencies and organizations at the state and local level.
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