ABSTRACT
This chapter surveys the various tools available for the management of environmental performance and assesses their relevance to small and medium-sized enterprises. The environmental management tools are: environmental management systems (EMS), environmental auditing, environmental indicators, life-cycle assessment, and environmental labelling. The chapter examines these tools and three others used by businesses, namely: environmental policies, ecobalances, and environmental reporting. In order to write an environmental policy, a firm needs to make an appraisal, and have some understanding, of its environmental aspects. ISO 14001 is a specification standard which means it consists of a set of requirements, in this case for establishing and maintaining EMS. Indicators can be used within an EMS to check that a firm has met the targets it is required to set for itself, but can equally well be used in firms that have not developed an EMS. The company has sought to improve its environmental performance by producing furniture from solid wood.
