Environmental Policy and Framework
The well-defined structures and functions of the
transportation industry provide a template for
environmental analysis and policy formation and for
collecting information on the environmental attributes
of each transportation activity, as illustrated in
Figures 1 and 2. Managers should prioritize these
attributes by their significance and extent of environmental
impacts. Perhaps the greatest challenges for
managers in creating a proactive EMS for transportation,
however, are updating information on rapidly
changing legal requirements and collecting accurate,
reliable and consistent data on the environmental
impacts of operations and facilities.
A sound environmental management system mustof course, provide current information on local, State,
provincial, and national laws on air, water, and soil
pollution, hazardous materials disposal, and natural
resources protection. As multimodal transportation
systems expand to facilitate international logistics,
transportation managers must also have current
information on changes in international standards
such as ISO 14000, bilateral and multilateral trade
agreements containing environmental restrictions or
guidelines, and international environmental agreements
regarding, for example, the reduction of CFC’s
or greenhouse gases.