Sustainability Performance Improvement Management System Application in Engineering Consulting

Wastewater and water utilities, municipalities, cities, private industry and consulting engineering firms are among those working to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, increase recycling and reuse of resources, and improve the quality of life for their employees and the communities they serve. Sustainability has become a business imperative and increasingly organizations are exploring means to operationalize continual improvement of sustainability performance. Management systems standards provide frameworks that many organizations have adopted for improving quality (ISO 9000), environmental (ISO 14001), health and safety (OHSAS 18001), and biosolids (National Biosolids Partnership) management performance. These frameworks are being used by some organizations to address sustainability performance improvement through the consideration of energy and carbon emissions, water conservation, waste reduction and related issues in aspects and objectives identification processes. The plando-check-act continual improvement cycle and the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System standard served as the basis for development of the Sustainability Management System that is being used by CDM for internal operations worldwide and for client application.