Kick-Starting Your Environmental Compliance Program

As a recent Industry Week article points out, with new environmental regulations popping up around the globe, ‘non-compliance’ is a ‘non-option’. Furthermore, if you’re a manufacturer, it’s not just your finished products that you have to be concerned with. You have to be sure that any new energy products are environmentally friendly, that chemicals used in the production process are non-hazardous and non-toxic, and that any waste products are properly disposed of.

In order to ensure you are in compliance, you need an environmental compliance program. But where do you start? Industry Week recently ran a great article that outlined what you need to do to Create an Effective Environmental Compliance Program.

  1. Document
    Make sure you have the data you need to demonstrate REACH and RoHS compliance.
  2. Analyze
    Be sure to analyze the effectiveness of any processes you already have in place. Things to consider:
    • resource requirements and associated overheads
    • current response times to customer requests
    • time losts and costs incurred responding to audits
    • costs of errors and unintentional non-compliant shipments that slip through
  3. Self-Assessment
    Consider the implications if you are found to be non-compliant.
  4. Appoint a Champion
    Someone has to spearhead the effort.
  5. Evaluate (, Evaluate, Evaluate)
    Compare the different solutions, their advantages and disadvantages, and select the best one.
  6. Implement
    Once you have identified the solution that has the best balance between functionality, flexibility, reporting, ease-of-use, implementation, commitment, and cost, you need to implement it.