Resource scarcity, climate change and adverse health effects on humans and animals are just a few examples of the far-reaching consequences of environmental damage. Environmental protection and sustainability are therefore essential for a future worth living on our planet. Companies also have an urgent responsibility to keep an eye on the environmental impact of their actions. By introducing an environmental management system, they can systematically identify and reduce the negative impacts of their business activities.
The basis for effective environmental management is a reliable database. Our software IngSoft InterWatt supports you in collecting data, provides you with transparency about your environmental data with reduced effort and shows you potential improvements in order to be able to contribute significantly to environmental protection.
How does environmental management work in companies?
Environmental management deals with all influences of corporate activities on the local and global environment. The main issues considered include energy consumption, emissions, waste, wastewater as well as land and resource use. They usually affect not only the company itself, but also its suppliers and customers. Comprehensive environmental management should therefore also consider the upstream and downstream processes of the value chain and make improvements.
An environmental management system (EMS) pursues the goal of establishing a mature environmental policy, environmental goals, action plans andprocesses in the company that regularly record and analyse the company's environmental performance. An important component is also the review of the implementation of the derived measures.
In order to make the environmental impacts of your company transparent to customers, life cycle assessment is also useful. This involves a detailed analysis of the entire life cycle of a product or all activities associated with the company (so-called "Life Cycle Assessment", or LCA for short).
Get to know our environmental management software
Whether you are just starting out or already having a mature management system, we will be happy to show you how to use our software to optimally structure, digitalise and automate your processes.
FAQ: The most important questions about environmental management
By introducing an environmental management system, companies not only reduce their environmental impact, they also benefit from other advantages:
- Reduced costs for energy by increasing operational energy efficiency
- Lower procurement costs through the optimised use of resources
- Reduced waste and enhanced recycling of materials
- Extending the lifetime of plant and machinery through sustainable use
- Ensuring compliance with legal and regulatory requirements
- Lower assessed credit and liability risk at financial service providers
- Strengthening of an environmentally friendly corporate image
- Competitive advantages through higher acceptance by customers and stakeholders
The proven normative standards for establishing qualitative environmental management include ISO 14001 (environmental management) and the slightly more comprehensive EMAS regulation (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme).
Compliance with standard norms can bring several advantages. For example, by demonstrating conformity with the requirements of ISO 50001 or EMAS, tax relief or subsidies can be claimed in various areas, including:
- Electricity and Energy Tax Act (StromStG and EStG)
- Peak compensation efficiency system ordinance (SpaEfV)
- Energy levies according to Energy Financing Act (EnFG) [formerly EEG-levies]
- Grid charges according to StromNEV
- Fuel Emissions Trading (BEHG) and the BEHG Carbon Leakage Ordinance (BECV) based on it.
In addition, environmental management certificates strengthen credibility of companies and serve as proof to the public, corporate partners and authorities.
IngSoft InterWatt was developed at its core as an energy management system. Of course, you can also use IngSoft InterWatt to make your company's environmental impact transparent and to derive measures. The necessary functionalities are already available in our software. After all, flexibility is one of the key benefits of IngSoft InterWatt. The software supports you and your company regarding various requirements that arise around energy management, environmental management and climate management. You would like to learn more? Please feel free to contact us.
