A critical review of classification of organisations in relation to the voluntary implementation of environmental management systems.

The need and ability of an organisation to manage and control its impact on the environment has been hotly debated in recent times. However, the uptake of certificated environmental management systems (EMS), specifically BS EN ISO 14001 (ISO 14001) (British Standards Institution, 2004), is becoming more prevalent, even though evidence of the individual benefits is less clear. Furthermore, reports are often limited and anecdotal in their discussion of the true barriers that organisations experience during the certification and management of their EMS. Presently organisations are commonly classified simply according to size and the barriers they experience when implementing an EMS successfully. This system of classification is not sufficient to understand the multifaceted environments within which modern organisations operate. This paper reviews existing classification methodologies relevant to environmental management so as to determine whether opportunities exist for their practical application in this sector. It begins with an introduction to EMS and existing discussions regarding implementation is provided before a more detailed consideration of organisational size, the integration and development of environmental management within an organisation, then cladistics and quality management systems (QMS) are reviewed as potential opportunities for classification. This shows that whilst numerous methods are available, none function beyond the theoretical, or that the classes provided restrain the description of the complex tasks. Central to differences faced by organisations are insights to the true hurdles that each experience when implementing an EMS. It is shown here how the manipulation of techniques from the more mature field of Energy Management may offer a direction for the development of robust classes. A valuable outcome is that these methods produce classifications that are fit for purpose to better support organisations through the implementation and management of their EMS.

Evaluation of inflammatory effects of airborne endotoxin emitted from composting sources.

Because of the lack of effective methodology, the biological effects of environmental endotoxin have not been assessed. Here we have collected and measured airborne endotoxin at different locations around composting sites. Increased endotoxin concentrations were observed close to composting activities and also at nearby boundary areas. Analysis of proinflammatory effects of the environmental endotoxin on interleukin (IL)-8 and IL-6 release from human D562 pharyngeal epithelial and MM6 monocytic cell cultures showed an association between endotoxin level and cytokine induction. The cytokine-inducing effect of bioaerosol extracts was inhibited by polymyxin B, indicating that endotoxin was the cause of cytokine responses we found. The environmental endotoxin was also more active for stimulating cytokines in airway epithelial cells than commercially purified Escherichia coli endotoxin. Our results suggest that these in vitro inflammatory cell models may contribute to the assessment of health impacts of environmental endotoxin.

The biogenic content of process streams from mechanical-biological treatment plants producing solid recovered fuel. Do the manual sorting and selective dissolution determination methods correlate?

The carbon emissions trading market has created a need for standard methods for the determination of biogenic content (chi(B)) in solid recovered fuels (SRF). We compare the manual sorting (MSM) and selective dissolution methods (SDM), as amended by recent research, for a range of process streams from a mechanical-biological treatment (MBT) plant. The two methods provide statistically different biogenic content values, as expressed on a dry mass basis, uncorrected for ash content. However, they correlate well (r(2)>0.9) and the relative difference between them was <5% for chi(B) between 21% (w)/w(d) and 72% (w)/w(d) (uncorrected for ash content). This range includes the average SRF biogenic content of ca. 68% (w)/w(d). Methodological improvements are discussed in light of recent studies. The repeatability of the SDM is characterised by relative standard deviations on triplicates of <2.5% for the studied population.