Title: Evaluation of operational environmental performance: an engineering-based approach

Authors: C. Burvill, G. Mead, J. Weir, P. McGowan, M. Reuter, F. Schiavone, M. Leary

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville 3010, Australia. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville 3010, Australia. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville 3010, Australia. ' Orica Engineering, Melbourne 3000, Australia. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville 3010, Australia. ' School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, RMIT University, Bundoora, Victoria 3083, Australia. ' School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, RMIT University, Bundoora, Victoria 3083, Australia

Abstract: The corporate sector is increasingly required to understand and manage the environmental consequences of their activities by the use of Environmental Management Systems (EMSs). A diverse range of EMSs have been proposed in the literature. These methods have been reviewed and assessed in this paper according to their suitability for evaluation of operational environmental performance. Existing methods present limitations in accommodating changes in environmental performance, and do not incorporate fundamental process analysis to assess how the actual performance varies from what is theoretically achievable. A novel engineering-based risk evaluation framework is proposed to overcome some of the identified issues.

Keywords: EMS; environmental management systems; process variation; fuzzy logic; chemical process analysis; environmental performance; engineering-based risk evaluation; risk assessment.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSDES.2009.028883

International Journal of Sustainable Design, 2009 Vol.1 No.2, pp.180 - 198

Published online: 10 Oct 2009 *

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