ABSTRACT
A good environmental management system should be able to go through more cycles than the Tour de France. Certification of an EMS by the British Standards Institution (BSI) helps to improve the breed by ensuring all the benefits get through to the bottom line. Unsurprisingly, surveys show that most busy managers are driven by fear of legislation or the marketplace to implement an environmental management system. There is nothing wrong with having a healthy respect for either of these forces for change, but when they move from being contributing factors to become a company's sole motivation the only one to lose out is the business itself. One of the advantages of having an independent and objective specialist in EMS look over your growing system lies in the expertise he or she can bring in the form of industry best practice. While stopping well short of consultancy this can be particularly helpful during the development of a new system.
