Environmental Management Manual



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The United Nations University

|Initial Draft |14 September 1999 |

|First Revision |29 February 2000 |

|Second Revision |3 July 2000 |

|Third Revision |20 September 2000 |

|Fourth Revision |31 October 2000 |

|Fifth Revision |18 December 2000 |

|Sixth Revision |26 February 2003 |

|Seventh Revision |7 January 2004 |

For internal circulation only

DRAFT (FOR INTERNAL CONSULTATION AND COMMENT)

Prepared by

the EMS Coordinator and

the ISO14001 Steering Group

The United Nations University

53-70 Jingumae 5-chome

Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-8925

Japan

Tel: (03) 3499-2811, Fax: (03) 3499-2828

Internet:

Please email your comments to the ISO14001 Steering Group

(Brendan Barrett - barrett@ias.unu.edu or Makiko Yashiro - yashiro@hq.unu.edu )

|Identification and Assessment of Significant Environmental Aspects |

Introduction

From May 1999 onwards, the United Nations University (UNU) has been working on the development on environmental management system (EMS) under ISO14001. As part of this process, in September 1999, an initial environmental review was completed and in February 2000, the first draft of the UNU Environmental Management Manual was finalized. The manual was subsequently revised in June 2000. Immediately following the revision of the manual, a decision was taken to update the list of significant environmental aspects that had been the basis of the planning work undertaken to date related to the ISO14001 initiative at UNU.

In this context, this report presents the updated information on the significant environment aspects (positive and negative, direct and indirect associated with operations and activities at the UNU headquarters, the Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU/AS) and the Global Environment Information Centre (GEIC), based in Tokyo, Japan.

In compiling this report, procedure UNU-EMS 4.3.1 was implemented and due consideration was given the objectives set out in the UNU Environmental Policy Statement. Reference was also made to article 4.2.2 of ISO14004 on identification of environmental aspects and evaluation of associated environmental impacts. According to ISO14001, an environmental aspect is:

“an element of an organization’s activities, products or services that can interact with the environment.”

The following steps were undertaken to identify these environmental aspects for the UNU and to evaluate their significance:

• All activities and relevant documentation at the UNU were reviewed and all environmental aspects were identified. This includes consideration of the actions of contractors where information is available.

• All potential and actual environmental impacts from these aspects: positive impacts, negative impacts and potential impacts, were identified and associated with an aspect.

• The aspects judged to be significant were identified and their significance assessed and ranked.

This entire process took over one year to complete and included opportunities for comment from UNU Senior Management as well as all UNU personnel (the latter through a questionnaire survey conducted in 1999). Since that time UNU has maintained this document for two biennium reporting periods – having updated this manual at the start of each biennium following the review of environmental performance for the previous biennium. This manual is thus updated to the start of the 2004-05 biennium.

Based on this assessment it can be concluded that main significant environmental aspects are (see Chart 2 for more details):

Negative Possible Direct Environmental Impact Positive Possible Indirect Environmental Impacts

On-site Emergency Situations Research Activities

TV Aerial Interference Training and Capacity Building

Waste Management Networking and Dissemination

Water Consumption Local Events

From the above, it is possible to conclude that the problem of TV aerial interference relates to the physical existence of the UNU building and that this issue was resolved during construction. Likewise, precautionary measures are in place to deal with emergency situations, although further consideration may be appropriate in order to ensure continual improvement in this area.

With respect to waste and water, the levels of consumption are not significantly high, but some reductions may be achievable. In addition, although not “significant environmental aspects”, it may also be worthwhile promoting energy efficiency measures and the general greening of the building through voluntary measures. These are practical measures that will raise the profile of the UNU ISO14001 initiative internally. They are also measures that individual staff members consider to be important.

On the positive side, many of the activities of the UNU have potentially significant indirect benefits for the environment through research, capacity building and knowledge generation. Reporting procedures are already in place in order to monitor the implementation of these activities and this information will continue to be considered through the ISO14001 EMS system for the UNU. More details of this identification and assessment process are presented in this report, so that the reader can understand the main assumptions made.

Information Collection

Information was gathered through a scrutiny of records and procedure manuals, through specific interviews with key personnel, through a series of staff seminars, and through an online feedback system. A series of five seminars covering a total of 200 staff members (including maintenance, security and janitorial staff) was conducted in order to introduce the ISO 14001 to the staff and to glean comments and suggestions on the ISO14001 Initiative. An online website and an email campaign covering all staff members were also used for this purpose. Staff members were also asked to fill out a questionnaire indicating their views and perceptions. The process of identifying the environmental impacts of UNU activities is on-going (i.e., will be constantly reviewed and reassessed as circumstances permit). The range of effects considered is based on those specified in ISO14001. The information was then assessed using the method described below.

Method

The main steps for the environmental impact assessment and the specification of significant environmental aspects were as follows:

1. The activities to be assessed were identified (by the ISO14001 Steering Group) in relation to each key theme of the environmental policy statement and based on the findings of the initial environmental review of September 1999 and subsequent staff feedback. The scope of activities to be chosen was large enough for conducting meaningful assessment and small enough to enable sufficient understanding (see Chart 1).

Chart 1: Standards for environmental risk assessment/indirect effects assessment

| |DIRECT ASPECTS |INDIRECT ASPECTS |

|Score |Direct aspects evaluation |Significance of the results |Indirect aspects evaluation |Significance of the results |

| |(Incidence) | | | |

|3 |1) High incidence under |1) High possibility of violating|1) High contribution to |1) Significant positive impacts |

|(high) |normal operating conditions |the standards required by |international environmental |on environment through knowledge|

| |2) Difficult to detect and |regulations |policy community |generation, skill enhancement, |

| |prevent |2) High possibility of harming |2) High contribution to the |and awareness raising |

| | |people's health |global knowledge pool on | |

| | | |environmental issues | |

| | | |3) High contribution to solving | |

| | | |the environmental problems of a | |

| | | |specific nation state or group | |

| | | |of states | |

| | | |4) High contribution to local | |

| | | |community through awareness | |

| | | |raising | |

|2 |1) Medium incidence under |1) Some possibility of giving |1) Medium contribution to |1) Some positive impacts on |

|(med) |normal operating conditions |negative impacts on environment |international environmental |environment through knowledge |

| |2) Possible to detect and |and people’s health |policy |generation, skill enhancement, |

| |prevent |2) Some possibility that |2) Medium contribution to the |and awareness raising |

| | |negative impacts on environment |global knowledge pool on | |

| | |and health will increase in the |environmental issues | |

| | |future |3) Medium contribution to | |

| | | |solving the environmental | |

| | | |problems of a specific nation | |

| | | |state or group of states | |

| | | |4) Medium contribution to local | |

| | | |community through awareness | |

| | | |raising | |

|1 |1) Low incidence under normal|1) Low possibility of negative |1) Low contribution to |1) Low possibility of positive |

|(low) |operating conditions |impacts on environment and |international environmental |impacts on environment through |

| |2) Likely to happen only in |health |policy community |knowledge generation, skill |

| |the occasions of earthquakes,| |2) Low contribution to the |enhancement, and awareness |

| |fires and accidents | |global knowledge pool on |raising |

| | | |environmental issues | |

| | | |3) Low contribution to solving | |

| | | |the environmental problems of a | |

| | | |specific nation state or group | |

| | | |of states | |

| | | |4) Low contribution to local | |

| | | |community through awareness | |

| | | |raising | |

2. Environmental aspects for each activity were specified and listed (see Chart 1) and then their impacts (positive and negative) were evaluated. Positive impacts cover a range of activities of the UNU which contribute to solving environmental problems at all levels through research, policy formulation, awareness raising and capacity building. At the UNU facility a positive impact would also relate to measures that bring about improvements in the environmental performance of the University (e.g. reduce water consumption, increased energy efficiency, reduced waste, etc.). However, these have not been considered in this assessment, but could be covered in the future as the EMS matures.

3. In Chart 2 the environmental assessment is presented and in Chart 3 the significant environmental aspects are registered. More details on the ranking and assessment system are presented below.

Chart 2: Standards for the assessment on the compliance of legal requirements

|Score |Standards for assessment |

|3 (high) |1) Possibility of violating standards required by regulations |

|2 (med) |1) Existence of applicable legal requirements |

| |2) Objectives and targets are not achieved |

|1 (low) |1) Nonexistence of applicable legal requirements |

| |2) Objectives and targets are achieved |

Environmental impact assessment

1) Overall score = (Ra or Rb: whichever is larger) x L

2) Specify and register as significant environmental aspects when meeting either of the following conditions:

a) Ra or Rb ≧ 4 or

b) Overall score ≧ 3

In addition to these criteria, the degree of significance of the Significant Environmental Aspects (SEA) of UNU requires consideration. In this regard, prioritization needs to be taken into account based on the following standards:

Chart 3: Standards for prioritization of significant environmental aspects

|Rank |Standards for assessment |

|Priority 1 |SEAs directly related to the organizational mission and core activities/outputs of the UNU. Indirect SEAs which lead to |

| |Contribution to the Global Community and Contribution to the Local Community are included. |

|Priority 2 |Indirect SEAs that are indispensable for improvements to the environmental performance (internal and external) of UNU. |

| |Also included are direct SEAs with a high possibility of bring about short or medium term improvements in environmental |

| |performance. |

|Priority 3 |SEAs with the lowest priority. Although there is a lower probability that work on these SEAs will bring about |

| |substantial improvements, it is considered continuous work on these SEAs would help in improving the environmental |

| |performance (internal and external) of UNU in the long term. |

Explanation of the Prioritization

Although the results of overall impact assessment show high significance of the discharge of water to the drains, it has lower possibilities for improving environmental performance, and based on the above mentioned standards for prioritization, it is categorized under Priority 3. On the other hand, aspects with lower impact assessment scores, such as energy consumption, are categorized under Priority 2, since they have high possibilities for improving environmental performance, and thus need to be emphasized.

Also, the results of overall impact assessment indicate high significance of emergency releases. Sanko Inc. has prepared a series of plans to handle emergency situations, and has conducted various periodical checks. Because of the unique organizational nature (extraterritoriality) of UNU, the results of the checks and emergency plans have not been reported to relevant agencies on a regular basis, but would need to be considered in the future.

With regard to the TV aerial interference, it was considered to have a significant negative environmental impact on the local environment, when the UNU building was being constructed. However, necessary mitigation measures were been taken on this issue, and it is no longer considered to be significant.

Process Flow Diagram (PFD) / Initial Environmental Impact Assessment (Chart 1) Date: 20 September 2000

| μ: Normal operating conditions Mark ○ ○: Normal operating conditions |

|Mark ○ |

|×: Abnormal operating conditions when applicable ×: Abnormal operating conditions when applicable |

|and emergency conditions and emergency conditions |

|●: Positive impacts (see notes) ●: Positive impacts |

|Input |Environmental impacts of|Environmental Risk |Reg|Com|Ini|Output |

|(Environmental |Input |Assessment/ |ula|pla|tia|(Environmental|

|Aspects) | |Indirect Effects |tio|int|l |Aspects) |

| | | |n | |eva| |

| | | | | |lua| |

| | | | | |tio| |

| | | | | |n | |

| |Air pollution |Water pollution |Soi|Imp|Dep|

| | | |l |act|let|

| | | |pol|s |ion|

| | | |lut|on |of |

| | | |ion|liv|nat|

| | | | |ing|ura|

| | | | |env|l |

| | | | |iro|res|

| | | | |nme|our|

| | | | |nt |ces|

| |Air pollution |Water pollution |Soil pollution|Impacts on living environment |Increase of wastes|Depletion of natural |

| | | | | | |resources |

|No. |Environmental Aspects |Work/Process | | |Control |Checking/Monitoring |Education and Training |

| | | | | |Procedures | | |

|(Priority 1) – Indirect Aspects |

|1 |Environment Related Research |UNU Centre and IAS |Knowledge Generation |Yes |In place |UNU |Not applicable |No additional reporting|

| |- UNU Centre have a series of research, training, and | | | | | | |required |

| |networking activities under the following environmental | | | | | | | |

| |themes: | | | | | | | |

| |Sustainable Urbanization; | | | | | | | |

| |Management of Fragile Ecosystems; | | | | | | | |

| |Solutions to Water Crises; and | | | | | | | |

| |Environmental Governance and Information | | | | | | | |

| |- UNU/IAS have a series of research, training, and networking| | | | | | | |

| |activities under the following environmental themes: | | | | | | | |

| |Biodiplomacy Initiative; | | | | | | | |

| |Science and Technology options for Developing Countries; | | | | | | | |

| |Sustainable Development Governance; | | | | | | | |

| |Urban Ecosystems; and | | | | | | | |

| |Education for Sustainable Development | | | | | | | |

|2 |Training and Capacity Building |UNU Centre and IAS |Skill Enhancement |Yes |In place |UNU |Not applicable |No additional reporting|

| |- Key aspects of the UNU training and capacity building | | | | | | |required |

| |projects include the following: | | | | | | | |

| |10 Ph.D. Fellowship Programme and post doctorate fellowships | | | | | | | |

| |2 advanced training courses | | | | | | | |

| |UNU International Courses | | | | | | | |

| |Global Seminars, lectures and workshops on environment | | | | | | | |

| |Media Studio and the Global Virtual University (GVU) | | | | | | | |

| |initiative, and FASID courses - online course with the UNU | | | | | | | |

| |(Tokyo Campus) | | | | | | | |

| |Ubuntu Declaration – global multi-institutional agreement to | | | | | | | |

| |integrate education, science, technology for sustainable | | | | | | | |

| |development. | | | | | | | |

|3 |Networking and Dissemination |UNU Centre and IAS |Publications |Yes |In place |UNU |Not applicable |No additional reporting|

| |- In 2002 UNU Centre and IAS achieved the following | | | | | | |required |

| |15 published books | | | | | | | |

| |17 in production | | | | | | | |

| |25 articles in scholarly journals | | | | | | | |

| |31 articles in the press | | | | | | | |

| |6 CD-Roms | | | | | | | |

| |other publicity and dissemination materials in circulation, | | | | | | | |

| |and online. | | | | | | | |

|4 |Local Activities |UNU Centre and IAS |Awareness Raising |Yes |Not required |Not required |Not required | |

| |- GEIC promotes environmental networking among various social| | | | | | | |

| |sectors, through: | | | | | | | |

| |Networking activities such as JEDIC-Networking for Oil | | | | | | | |

| |Spills, and Inter-University Environment Forum (IeF); | | | | | | | |

| |Disseminating information on environmental issues to the | | | | | | | |

| |local community (13,000 books, 350 videos, newsletters, | | | | | | | |

| |exhibitions, seminars, workshops, publications, CD-Roms and | | | | | | | |

| |materials from more than 1,000 organizations); | | | | | | | |

| |UNU also hosted the Tokyo Designers Block (international art | | | | | | | |

| |and design fair) within the UNU grounds in 2003. | | | | | | | |

|(Priority 2) – Direct Aspects |

|5 |Energy Consumption/ Air Emissions |Heater-Cooling |Emissions to Air |Yes |In place |Sanko Inc |Dealt with by |Training for UNU staff |

| | |System | | | | |Sanko |in Energy Efficiency |

| | | | | | | | |Measures may be |

| | | | | | | | |Appropriate |

|6 |Waste |Research and |Waste generated |Yes |To be modified |UNU Units 1 to 4 |Not applicable |As above. Also waste |

| | |Administration | | | | | |sorting system might be|

| | | | | | | | |appropriate. |

|7 |Emergency Releases |Mechanical and |Emissions to air and |Yes |In place |Sanko Inc. |Dealt with by | |

| | |Electrical Systems |water, health and | | | |Sanko | |

| | | |safety | | | | | |

|8 |Procurement Practices |UNU Centre and IAS |Depletion of natural |Yes |In place |UNU Unit 1 and 4 |Not applicable | |

| | | |resources | | | | | |

|(Priority 3) – Direct Aspects |

|9 |Water Consumption/Discharges |Building Operation |Emissions to Drains |Yes |In place |Sanko Inc. |Dealt with by |Save water campaign |

| | |and Cooling System | | | | |Sanko |needed |

|10 |Other Resources |Research and |Waste generated and |Yes |To be developed|UNU Units 1 to 4 |Not applicable |Recycling activities |

| | |Administration |energy consumed | | | | |already promoted. |

|11 |Indoor Air Quality |Building |Human Health |Yes |In place |Sanko and Cosmos |Dealt with by |Monitoring required by |

| | | | | | | |contractors |regulations |

|12 |Drinking Water Quality |Building |Human Health |Yes |In place |Sanko and Cosmos |Dealt with by |Monitoring required by |

| | | | | | | |contractors |regulations |

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Identification of Significant Environmental Aspects

DRAFT REVISION

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