Fredrik von Malmborg

Environmental Management Systems: What is in it for Local Authorities?

In the last five to ten years local authorities world-wide have followed the trend in the private sector and implemented standardized environmental management systems (EMSs) in their organizations. ...In the last five to ten years local authorities world-wide have followed the trend in the private sector and implemented standardized environmental management systems (EMSs) in their organizations. This raises questions to the reasons for implementing an EMS and, not least, about the roles and contributions of an EMS in municipal environmental policy and management. Drawing on EMS research and experiences in several countries, this review paper aims at providing a critical overview of this new phenomenon and reflects upon the potentials and drawbacks of EMS as a tool for local authorities to use in environmental management. It is argued that an EMS would primarily be regarded as a technical management tool for analytical action that helps to plan, systematize and evaluate the environmental management tasks in an organization. From a critical-emancipatory perspective, it could also, however, be interpreted as a tool for communicative action that may enhance co-operation in the municipal organization. Used in an innovative way and being aware of the potential pitfalls, the EMS may provide information, structures and processes that could help municipal actors to (re)consider their ideologies and socio-cultural structures related to environmental management.

CHOICE OF ENERGY DATA IN ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Life cycle oriented methods are increasingly used for environmental assessments (EAs) of the built environment. However, many assumptions are made in such assessments, potentially influencing the results and making the assessment more ambiguous. To increase the reliability of EAs, consequences of the assumptions made have to be better understood. Since energy use in the operation and maintenance phase is an important factor decisive for the overall environmental performance of a building, the purpose of this study is to investigate how the selection of heat and electricity mix affects the assessed environmental performance of buildings. It also aims to suggest how to choose heat and electricity data in EAs of the built environment in general. Applying four different modes of electricity production and two different modes of heat production in a case study of three different buildings with different technical solutions for heat and electricity supply, the study show that choices of heat and electricity mix have significant influence on the final results of the EA. Regarding the choice of heat and electricity mix in an EA of buildings and the built environment, it is argued that both average and marginal data on electricity production should be used in general. As for data on district heat production, it is recommended to use data on the average production in the specific, local district heating system in general. Finally, it is argued that consequences of the assumptions made should be explicitly communicated in the EA report, so as to let the decision-makers rather than the analysts make the evaluation.

Environmental Information Management in Municipalities

This paper presents results from a study on the present needs for and management of environmental information in three Swedish municipalities. It was found that there are considerable differences between the municipalities studied, regarding needs for environmental information as well as approaches and tools used for providing the information needed—differences that seem closely related to the structures of the municipalities. The paper ends with a discussion on some general requirements for municipal environmental information management. Besides a need for analytical tools, it is argued that municipalities would have to pay more attention to political aspects of the environmental situation in environmental decision making, and thus in environmental information management.

Management and Policy Aspects of Industrial Ecology: An Emerging Research Agenda

This special issue is based on the international symposium Business and Industrial Ecology held alongside the 2003 Business Strategy and the Environment Conference in Leicester, UK. The main messag ...