What are the main environmental professions?
The National Observatory of Jobs and Professions in the Green Economy (Onemev) lists over 200 “green” professions. Main sectors: energy and water production and distribution (43%), sanitation and waste treatment (36%). Profiles sought: site managers, waste management consultants, waste treatment technicians, water exploitation technicians, hydrogeologists, hydraulic engineers, HVAC technicians, renewable energy development agents…
But the environment is also the concern of companies outside the eco-industry. That means all the companies! To achieve this, they rely on in-house QSE (quality, safety and environment) specialists. An environmental manager is responsible for minimizing the impact of his or her company’s activities on nature, while preserving its innovative dimension and profitability. It ensures that regulations are applied, and proposes solutions to limit the environmental impact of materials, procedures, transport, flow and waste treatment, etc. In this respect, he must be familiar with the ISO 14001 standard. Environmental managers may be assisted by environmental engineers (5 years’ higher education), environmental project managers specialized in a particular field (heat, waste, greenhouse gases, etc.) and environmental technicians (3 years’ higher education).
The environment is also a matter of auditing. Environmental auditors carry out audits either within the company they work for (internal audits), or on behalf of third-party certification bodies such as AFNOR Certification. The purpose of these audits is to obtain or renew
management system certification (ISO 14001)
product or service certification (NF Environnement, European ecolabel), an assessment (
AFAQ Biodiversity
,
AFAQ Eco-conception
,
AFAQ Circular Economy
), or the Agriculture biologique label.
Standards: what does the Environment Code have to say?
The word “norme” and its derivatives are repeated more than 300 times in the Code de l’environnement, which groups together the legal texts relating to environmental law. However, the term is never accompanied by the adjective “voluntary”. And with good reason.
Whether French (NF), European (EN) or international (ISO), voluntary standards should not be confused with regulations. In this case, a “standard” refers to a mandatory environmental measure, such as the requirement for car manufacturers not to exceed limit values for exhaust gas pollutants (anti-pollution standards). Nevertheless, voluntary standards are one way of meeting the objectives set by regulations. What’s more, a European decree or regulation sometimes mentions a standard by name as a means of fulfilling an obligation. In this case, compliance with the standard is considered presumption of regulatory conformity.
Unlike regulatory standards, voluntary standards are drawn up by consensus of all interested parties (companies, federations, consumer associations, public authorities, etc.). Applied to the environment, they help them to develop common protocols for accounting for greenhouse gas emissions, implementing an environmental management system, determining the requirements of an eco-label… They can also be used as a basis for certification, which proves an organization’s commitment to applying the standard, while remaining optional.
How can you identify and reduce your environmental impact?
Every product has an impact on the environment. Even the greenest. Its manufacture always requires raw materials, energy, natural resources, packaging, transport, and the labor that moves and feeds itself to make it. But we can limit our environmental impact by choosing products that are the least damaging to the planet, for the same quality of use.
The first stage involves an analysis of the company’s or local authority’s environmental situation in terms of the main indicators of damage to air, water and natural resources: greenhouse gases, ozone, toxic pollutant emissions, water consumption, eutrophication, water pollution, primary energy consumption, non-renewable raw materials, etc.
The results determine the levers that can be used to limit impacts and, as a prerequisite, to rethink supply chains, industrial processes, waste management, energy choices, staff training, etc. This can go as far as eco-design, which encourages us to think, right from the product design phase, about more virtuous manufacturing and use processes: limiting the use of non-renewable raw materials, for example.
To improve efficiency, companies, local authorities and institutions are strongly encouraged to set up an environmental management system (EMS) based on the ISO 14001 standard. By establishing the principle of continuous improvement, the exercise greatly facilitates the identification, monitoring and reduction of environmental impacts.
What is the definition of environmental management?
Environmental management refers to the organization deployed within a company or other economic player to identify, monitor and reduce over time the impacts generated by the production of goods and services on the environment. As with quality (QMS) or energy (EMS), we speak of environmental management systems (EMS). It is steered by a designated person within the company, a specialist in the QSE sphere and trained in ISO 14001 in particular, which provides guidelines for building a good EMS.
Its role is to involve all parts of the company in the commitment to reduce impacts, based on the right indicators: from production to communication, including marketing and all levels of staff. No stage of the process is overlooked, including apparently ancillary services such as the company canteen or sanitary facilities… An EMS always aims for continuous improvement in the company’s environmental performance, by reducing the impacts linked to its activity (raw materials, water, energy, waste), which means setting up regular review meetings.
Properly implemented, an environmental management system can lead to ISO 14001 certification, rewarding the efforts made.
What is ISO 14001?
ISO 14001 defines the requirements for an effective environmental management system (EMS). This voluntary standard is aimed at all organizations, whatever their size or field of activity. All sectors are concerned: industry (agri-food, metallurgy, textiles, mechanics, chemistry…) but also the medical, social and administrative sectors…
You can train with AFNOR Compétences
.
It unfolds the four steps of PDCA(plan, do, check, act ), to be repeated in a loop for continuous improvement. Revised in 2015, ISO 14001 now incorporates the HLS(High Level Structure), which provides a common framework for all management system standards, facilitating the implementation of integrated management systems (with ISO 9001 for quality, for example).
The voluntary ISO 14001 standard can lead to
a
certification
certification, following an internal audit or one carried out by an independent body. This approach demonstrates the company’s environmental responsibility to its customers and partners, while reinforcing the involvement of management and employees. ISO 14001 certification also provides a significant competitive and financial advantage, as demonstrated by
AFNOR Certification’s study on feedback from ISO 14001-certified facilities (PDF, 2018
).
How do you identify an environmentally-friendly product or service?
It’s not always easy to determine the environmental quality of a product. We can be seduced by claims or logos that turn out to be misleading because they are simply the result of self-declaration. Packaging labelled “100% recyclable” often only concerns the container, not the contents, which may contain substances harmful to the environment.
To find your way around, carefully read the information on the packaging (text, logo, pictogram) and the label. Some are mandatory. For example, a dishwasher, a car or an apartment must display its energy performance with a grade (A, B, C, D, E…). The same applies to the labels of DIY products intended for indoor use: insulation materials, paints, varnishes and glues must indicate their content of atmospheric pollutant emissions, such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
In the food industry, the list of ingredients is also revealing: it mentions the various additives: colorants, flavor enhancers and other thickeners… used in the recipe. The key is to recognize them and determine their impact on health and the environment.
At the same time, the company marketing the product or service can choose to demonstrate its added ecological value by means of a label or certification awarded on the basis of a third-party audit. In this case, the logo indicates that the product complies with a set of specifications: organic farming label, NF Environnement, European ecolabel. Lastly, it can experiment with the environmental labelling provided for by law.
What are the eco-labels?
Whether private (Ecocert, PEFC…) or public (Label AB, Eurofeuille, NF Environnement), green labels guarantee quality products that comply with demanding ecological criteria, set out in specifications and regularly audited. They are awarded following a certification audit carried out, on request, by an independent body accredited by Cofrac, such as AFNOR Certification.
AFNOR Certification offers the Agriculture biologique (organic farming) label (for manufacturers, processors, distributors and importers of organic products), the NF Environnement label, and the European ecolabel, recognizable by the little flower.
To simplify consumer choice, a new voluntary environmental display system called “Environmental Impact” is currently being rolled out. The rating awarded (from A to E, with A being the best score) is a summary of the product’s main environmental impacts, calculated over the entire life cycle according to a defined methodology.
On its website, ADEME presents the 100 best environmental labels (“Excellent choice” and “Very good choice”) for 12 categories of everyday products.
What is a life cycle assessment? How do you make one?
The life cycle assessment (LCA) of a product, service, company or process is a standardized method (ISO 14040 and ISO 14044) that goes further than a simple carbon footprint. It measures greenhouse gas emissions at different stages in the life of an object or service. When applied to newspaper production, for example, the carbon footprint does not take into account the origin of the paper or the quality of the inks, which are decisive factors in determining whether a product is environmentally friendly. LCA inventories all material and energy flows in and out of a product at every stage of its life cycle: extraction of raw materials, manufacturing, distribution, use and end-of-life.
Lifecycle analysis helps professionals make informed decisions. Is it better for the environment to use PEFC- or FSC-certified paper, or recycled paper? Should you choose this or that process, or use vegetable-based inks, and if so, which ones? By understanding the impact of their choices and working closely with papermakers and printers, publishers can produce newspapers with a lower environmental impact.
What is eco-design? How do you integrate it into your business?
Ecodesign involves minimizing a product’s impact on the environment right from the design phase, so as to reduce the impact of subsequent phases (transport, distribution, use, end-of-life). It integrates environmental protection right from the design stage of a product or service. Objective: optimize the use of resources (energy, water, raw materials) and limit the ecological footprint by reducing pollution, nuisances and waste. This means, for example, choosing single-material products, as multi-material products complicate the sorting and recycling phase once the product has been consumed.
Ecodesign is an approach that balances economic and environmental costs, as well as different environmental impacts. For example, improving a building’s insulation reduces its energy consumption. However, this requires more materials and energy to extract. Lifecycle thinking therefore makes it possible to determine whether the effect produced is really positive or negative.
The approach can be validated by an AFAQ Ecodesign assessment, to prove the validity of the company’s commitment.
What is the purpose of environmental certification?
Environmental certifications validated by an independent, duly accredited body offer a number of advantages. For the producer or service provider, certification testifies to the reality of their commitment to the planet, with the seal of objectivity and impartiality, over and above compliance with national and international regulations. In contrast to a self-declaration, a third-party certifier certifies the correct application of the chosen standard or specification in the field.
The certification process boosts staff and management motivation. It facilitates innovation, while at the same time generating savings in water, raw materials and energy consumption, waste recycling and industrial processes. Certification is also a competitive advantage to be leveraged, particularly in the context of calls for tender, some of which sometimes make it a prerequisite. Finally, it improves the company’s image in the eyes of stakeholders, public authorities and consumers (labels).
Certification means undergoing an audit, and working towards continuous improvement. It is often valid for three years and requires follow-up audits. In terms of environmental management, the best known is ISO 14001 certification, based on the voluntary standard of the same name.
What is greenwashing and how can it be detected?
Greenwashing is a marketing and communications technique that gives a company a “green” image when its claims are far from the truth. A product is presented as totally ecological when only one of its elements is, or the visual is at odds with reality (for example, an industrial food product against a green landscape). Similarly, when used improperly, offsetting techniques (carbon offsetting, biodiversity offsetting) can play into the hands of greenwashing, as they can give the impression that the company is “buying” a good conscience by investing in ecological projects outside its perimeter, while doing nothing within its own.
Such a communication strategy can be very risky, as being accused of greenwashing by NGOs or consumers can permanently tarnish a company’s image, especially via social networks. By sowing confusion, greenwashing undermines the awareness-raising campaigns run by associations and public authorities to encourage the consumption of more environmentally-friendly products.
Because it implies the intervention of an impartial, objective third-party organization, certification is a remedy for greenwashing. As long as you follow it over time and renew it regularly. Finally, ADEME has published an anti-greenwashing guide for companies.
What is biodiversity? How can we take its impact into account?
Biodiversity covers all interactions between living beings and their physical and chemical environment. The term refers to the diversity of the living world at all levels: diversity of environments (ecosystems), diversity of species, genetic diversity within a single species. All these levels are themselves interdependent.
The damage to biodiversity caused by human activities (pollution, climate change, etc.) has accelerated in recent decades. Insect, bird and pollinator populations are plummeting, to the point where scientists fear a 6th mass extinction.
Long neglected, the protection of biodiversity is beginning to be taken into account by economic players, through the ERC sequence: avoid, reduce, compensate. For example, an aggregates company looking to set up a quarry will first seek to avoid deforestation, then, if this is not possible, to reduce the deforested area as much as possible, then, if this is not possible, to invest in reforestation elsewhere to compensate for its own deforestation operation. Reinforced by the 2016 Biodiversity Act, this principle applies first and foremost to the real estate and construction sectors.
Taking biodiversity into account can be integrated into an environmental management system (ISO 14001). Signs of recognition such as
AFAQ Biodiversity
or
AFAQ Clean Ports
prove an organization’s commitment to biodiversity issues and attest to the seriousness of its approach.
