Environmental Improvement and Management Plan on Air Pollution

Introduction Air pollution is regarded as significant problem, which arises due to operations of organisations. It is noticed that businesses does to consider effective environmental programs that are necessary to make sure that sustainable and healthy atmosphere is maintained. In this paper, air pollution is discussed which can be controlled by making use of effective environmental plan. Action plan for implementing and monitoring environment improvement program is provided in the paper along with the discussion on environmental management system. This system is considered as the most effective means as it helps the firm in making their day-to-day operations effective in terms of environmental aspect. Moreover, corporate responsibility for British Petroleum is also elaborated in the paper with external reporting requirements for air pollution.

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Action Plan for Implementation and Monitoring                              

An environmental improvement plan must be implemented by the government of United Kingdom in order to ensure that the problem of air pollution can be reduced to the maximum level. In order to implement an action plan the following goals and objectives must be followed:

Goals

  • Reducing the production of waste, this includes hazardous and solid waste, liquid discharges, air emissions, and energy consumption. All these aspects contribute to the problem of air pollution (Disterheft, et al., 2012)
  • The practices related to pollution protection must be promoted so that sustainable use of natural resources can be obtained. This would help in protecting the atmosphere from air pollution which will ultimately protect the overall environment and human health (Glasson, et al., 2013)
  • Replacement of dangerous chemicals with alternatives that are less toxic
  • Reducing or eliminating the pollutants before their manufacture
  • Creating targets  that help in reducing presence of materials that are harmful
  • Improving the efficiencies of the process so that less energy and material are being used (Therivel, 2012)

Objectives

For the purpose of achieving the objectives mentioned above, the Action Plan elaborates four different measures. The first among them is that overall treatment must be enhanced along with a decline in the discharge of multiple pollutants. Moreover, effective steps would be taken in order to make sure that small coal firing boilers are rectified and construction of denitration, desulphurisation is accelerated. The second measure that must be adopted is optimising and adjusting the industrial structure and economic transition must be upgraded and promoted so that presence of air pollution can be reduced to the maximum level (Carew-Reid, et al., 2013).

The government of the United Kingdom has issued Action Plan on the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution that serves as the guidance for the efforts to prevent the air pollution. The Committee and the State Council is known to value controlling measures for air pollution. The inauguration of such action plan in terms of important measure to improve the livelihood of people proves to be a concrete action to establish ecological civilisation (Johnston & Master, 2004). The air pollution is a huge prevailing issue in the United Kingdom because it is a herculean task for controlling air pollution. In order to serve such purposes, the most persistent effort can be made for staying committed to the principle that is responsible for air pollution control. The whole society is required to work for the fresh air while striving for economic development in the domain of environmental protection during the process of economic development to achieve economic and social benefits (Kraft & Kamieniecki, 2007). 

The third measure is related to the increase the speed of technological reform of organisations along with the improvements in capabilities of scientific innovation. The development of economy will then be boosted while promoting innovative development and industrialisation of major environmental products. The fourth measure is to quicken the step for adjusting energy structure while increasing the supply of clean energy (Andersen, et al., 2012).

Improvements in Environmental Performance based on Environmental Management Systems       

An environmental management system is considered as one of the most significant aspects of the process of dealing with the problem of air pollution. This system provides an overview of the methodology in the process of arranging and actualising environmental safety measures. Therefore, it is analysed that with the help of proper EMS environmental performance of an organisation can be improved. This could be done in the manner that it evaluates the environmental programs adopted by the business in comprehensive, documented, planned, and systematic manner. It consists of organisational structure, preparation, and resources for emerging, executing, and sustaining policy for environmental protection (Tilburg, et al., 2013; Glasson, et al., 2013). Furthermore, environmental performance can also be improved based on environmental management system as it helps in gaining an idea about the ways in which the pollution free atmosphere can be ensured in both external and internal context. This system is combined environmental managements into day-to-day operations of an organisation. Moreover, it also assists in making an organisation capable of dealing with the environmental problems as it integrates environmental management with quality administration frameworks and long-term practices (Disterheft, et al., 2012; Andersen, et al., 2012).

There is a consistent debate about the value of environmental management systems to provide to the organisations. The debate has risen from the absence of quantifiable data demonstrating organisations with Environmental Management Systems producing insufficient environmental emissions and waste as compared to the organisations. There are different programs for which results have been published showing improvements in the environmental performance of organisations with an EMS. However, there are different opinions on the elements to improve the performance (Comoglio & Botta, 2012; Kraft & Kamieniecki, 2007). It is considered that the quantitative reductions in the pollutant emissions along with the discharges include the use of natural resources with negative environmental impacts. The Environmental Protection Agency is the national performance track that requires the member organisations to implement EMS along with the report on quantitative environmental goals being aimed to fulfil the three-year term. The selection of goals for the members can select from a range of environmental indicators. These goals are required to go beyond the applicable compliance limits or requirements. The enhancement of active pollution prevention program results in the elimination of hazardous materials along with the associated waste generation (Johnston & Master, 2004; Tulchinsky & Varavikova, 2014).

Corporate Responsibility for British Petroleum

It is noticed that most of the organisations are quite keen to formulate appropriate strategy in order to perform their corporate responsibility viably. Moreover, it is important from British Petroleum prospect that they must have appropriate plans regarding the betterment of society at the time of executing their business operations substantially (Tilburg, et al., 2013). However, few stakeholders there are that are directly linked affected by the operations of different organisations. Some of the key stakeholders are as follows:

Societal

It is observed that a common person often affected by the business operations of the different organisation such as British Petroleum that might enhance the air pollution and create problems for them to tackle this thing quickly. Moreover, due to the expansion of the business operations, these days organisations are not able to protect the environment because they are looking to earn the maximum profit be neglecting other duties that should also be performed by them (Tulchinsky & Varavikova, 2014).

Government Regulators

Moreover, it is a core duty of the top officials of UK that they must impose strict rules and regulations on those organisations that are involved in the manufacturing of different products that which might raise the level of pollution to some extent. It is noted that most of the countries are quite keen to minimise the level of air pollution for the reason that it would create problems for them to build up a healthy environment. On the other hand, the top officials of organisations should also consider this element in order to minimise the problems to the negligible level (Tilburg, et al., 2013). 

Non-Profit N.G.Os

It is observed that most of the non-profit organisations play a vital role in order to minimise the problems of air pollution by arranging some sorts of seminars and programs that might help them to increase the awareness of a common person regarding the issue. Moreover, these organisations help the governmental authority to tackle this complex situation without putting further cost and exertions. It is noted that these N.G.Os might require an extensive amount of resources in terms of money and workers in order to attain their set goals and objectives in a more appropriate manner (Kraft & Kamieniecki, 2007). 

Media

Media is one of the most important sources that are used by numerous people in order to complete their job substantially. It is found that more than half of the people in the UK are quite keen to watch the news and different programs regarding the current issues and so on. For that reason, media should highlight the core issues that might influence the environment quite badly because this is the only way through which the awareness of a common person can be increase and also cope with this challenging situation significantly (McNall, et al., 2011). 

Economic

Some economic factors might affect the level of air pollution that should be controlled at any cost. Some of the key elements are as follows:

Customers

Due to the increasing demand of people, organisations are quite keen to use different types of the production process that might increase the level of air pollution. Moreover, it is a prior duty of the top officials of different organisations to manage their work importantly without adopting unethical techniques that would influence the environment in a pessimistic manner (Johnston & Master, 2004). 

Investors

It is found that in the era of the business world people are looking to invest their precious money in large-scale organisations in order to earn maximum profit. For that reason, they usually pressurise the top officials of an organisation to increase the level of production and business activities in order to attain maximum benefits from their investment (Andersen, et al., 2012). 

Organisational

Organisational factor includes stakeholders that have the potential to influence environmental issues at the larger context. These include employees, stockholders, managers and unions that affect the environmental performance of the organisation (Disterheft, et al., 2012).

Employees

Employees can contribute effectively in the process of influencing environmental problems because they are mainly concerned about their wages and benefits due to which they do not care about the performance or issues that arise because of their performance. Moreover, they are also forced to achieve the target which depicts the fact that they just focusing on reaching the goals and does not care about the environmental issues such as air pollution that take birth (Comoglio & Botta, 2012).

Managers

Managers are another reason behind increased problem of air pollution because they only care about the targets and objectives of the firm. They convey to the employees to proceed with the practices without considering the problems or issues that might arise due to the operations. Based on this, it is observed that managers are major stakeholders that influence the problem of air pollution in the environment (Johnston & Master, 2004).

Internal and External Reporting Requirements  

The reporting of air quality monitoring results along with the non-compliances occur within a range of formats provided as follows:

  • Internal reporting
  • Reports to the regulatory agencies, which can include Licence Annual Returns, Annual Environmental Management Report, and Development Consent Compliance Reporting
  • Report to the General Public, which include 14 days EPL monitoring report,
  • Community Reports including Coal Sustainability Reports, and the presentations to the Dendrobium Community Consultative Committee (Disterheft, et al., 2012)

Different categories of complaints are reported on a monthly basis to the Mine Management and during the meetings. The summary of complaints is reported in the Annual Environmental Management Report (Therivel, 2012).

Influence of Environmental Behaviour and Sustainability for British Petroleum

The British Petroleum is known for using green completions that are practicable technically and economically at the drilling sites. Such type of process is known for capturing natural gas that would be flared or vented during the completion and commissioning of wells. The influence of emissions occurs at national or regional levels. The organisation has been implementing measures for controlling and prevention air pollution, which influence the environmental behaviour along with the sustainability of the organisation itself (Comoglio & Botta, 2012; Glasson, et al., 2013). Based on these strategies, the upstream emissions to air declined in 2014 due to the divestments within the United Kingdom. Moreover, the downstream emissions declined in 2014 due to the divestment of Carson and Texas City Refineries in the United Kingdom. The measures being implemented by the organisation focused on the reduction of gas flaring since 2010 while considering significant investments to achieve the targeted goals. The volume of the produced gas has increased four times leading to the ratio of associated gas out of produced gas being shifted from 80 percent to around 7 percent (McNall, et al., 2011; Therivel, 2012).   

Conclusion

It is concluded based on the discussions made above that in order to reduce the problem of air pollution proper environmental improvement programs must be implemented. With the help of this, the organisations such as British Petroleum would be able to determine the fact that to what extent their operations cause air pollution in the environment. Moreover, proper implementation of the action plan provided in the paper also depicts that effective environmental program and accurate monitoring and execution of it is essential to reduce air pollution.  The corporate responsibility of British Petroleum towards air pollution is divided into different categories, which include societal, economic, and organisational factors.                     

 

 

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