Increasing responsibility of manufacturing companies to the environment - an introduction to environmental management systems

The scarcity of natural resources and anthropogenic environmental impacts lead to rising costs and are thus increasingly being placed in the focus of the society and the companies. Especially in today's discussions, the environmental behavior of companies plays an increasingly important role. Through the media and internet age, information about the companies are quickly available and accessible. Therefore, companies' communication policies must be based on an environmentally compatible distribution, environmentally compatible production and environmentally compatible products. Because of this, appropriate systems have to be implemented within the company in order to be able to influence the environmental effects. This can be done with the implementation of an environmental management system. The systematic environmental management was also introduced in Europe in 1988. This was based on the "Responsible Care Programs" of the Association of the Chemical Industry and the "Codes of Good Practices".