A Simple Guide to Set Up an Environmental Management System

Preface

Organizations are increasingly concerned about achieving and demonstrating sound environmental performance, and many have realized that putting in place an environmental management system (EMS) is an effective means to do so. In order to assist more organizations in Hong Kong to develop their own EMS, the Corporate Environmental Management Section of the Environmental Protection Department has prepared this guide to give them some useful ideas to get started.

With this objective in mind, this guide outlines the key stages (Modules 1 to 7) involved in setting up an EMS and leads organizations through the process in a step-by-step approach. It should be emphasized that each organization's strategy may be unique to its own situation and therefore there is no single programme that works for every organization. However, there are some key stages one needs to go through.

If you are the person who is responsible for setting up an EMS in your organization, the following hints will help you get the best out of this guide :

1.	Take a look at the chart below to get a general picture of what key stages are involved in the process.
2.	Start with Module 1 and work through module-by-module to Module 7 sequentially.
3.	Follow the steps in each module that fits your organization's own situation in the section.
4.	Complete the section at the end of each module before you proceed to the next one.