What Is ‘Environmental Emergency Preparedness and Response’?

What is emergency preparedness?

Emergency preparedness means being able to deal with any serious event that may occur. Because the environment is so vast and changeable, the course of the emergency will be unpredictable, changing as the event changes in nature. Taking action quickly is imperative which is why being prepared and armed with a response is part of the ISO 14001 scope. Companies that wish to minimise risk may consider taking part in Environmental Emergency Preparedness and Response training. This way, staff will know precisely what to do, avoiding panic and mistakes occurring. Only when planning ahead and armed with the appropriate knowledge can organisations save lives and minimise the impact on the environment.

Why is emergency preparedness important?

Those organisations that decide to work towards Environmental Emergency Preparedness and Response certification will be well prepared.  This is important, meaning that your business will be ready to:

• Put in place and maintain emergency planning
• React swiftly and correctly to an environmental emergency
• Create contingency plans that cover communication, decision-making and the role of key employees
• Have in place high standards of health and safety
• Create processes that protect people/property during an emergency
• Finalise a plan for emergency communications
• Deal with any release of hazardous materials, lessening environmental impact

Environmental emergencies can cause major disasters such as the destruction of agricultural produce and outbreaks of disease. It is only by having a sophisticated response plan in place that links with environmental emergency operations that major disasters can be averted.

Emergency Preparedness and Response in ISO 14001 provides an easy-to-follow framework that organisations can use as a guide. It enables a plan to be created that will effectively trigger the correct responses in the case of an environmental emergency. The aim should be for recovery to be both quick and sustainable, whether the disaster occurs naturally or is man-made. Companies that take the time to develop adequate response procedures can feel secure, knowing that employees will be protected and will be armed with the appropriate knowledge and techniques to know how to respond correctly to an environmental emergency.

Benefits of emergency preparedness

So we’ve looked at the details of ISO 14001 but some organisations struggle when it comes to putting in place a suitable plan.  Any work carried out has to conform to the emergency preparedness and response requirements, but what type of emergencies may need to be dealt with? Just how detailed does the plan have to be?  There are many benefits of emergency preparedness as having a plan in place provides a process to follow that protects people, property and places. Let’s look at the benefits of emergency preparedness in more detail:

Impact, control and significance

Imagine an alarm going off, signalling that an emergency has occurred that threatens the environment. Your company needs to avoid panic and immediately have plans in place to move forward, minimising or avoiding damage. The only sure way of knowing what type of situations to expect is to look at your pre-prepared Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan, which should have identified the type of things to expect, such as:

1. Impact – Look at how any of your company’s activities may interact with the environment negatively and what impact will occur due to each of these aspects.
2. Control – Decide whether you can control these aspects or not. If yes, then emergency plans need to be created to respond.
3. Significance – if any of the aspects appear to be significant, then the emergency response needs to be suitable, particularly if it is identified as major.

An emergency incident can lead to an immediate environmental impact, or an increased risk of an emergency and depending on the type of incident, the severity of the outcome can vary enormously.

When an emergency incident occurs, rapid and correct decisions have to be made to minimise the impact.  It is therefore important that your processes consider what incidents could happen within your service provision and what contingency measures should be in place if incidents occur.  This way, serious impacts are either avoided or minimised.

Environmental aspect identification

Organisations that initiate Emergency Preparedness and Response in line with ISO 14001 do so to control and minimise risks to the environment. Environmental aspect identification is a way of carrying out a relevant risk assessment.  The hazard can then be managed, as the company will be prepared to deal with any environmental risks that come its way. By carrying out the identification of environmental risks that may occur, companies implementing ISO 14001 are doing all possible to control hazards linked to their activities.

Developing the emergency response plan

A plan should be produced so that it is prepared to handle foreseeable emergencies.  The aim should be to minimise the impact of incidents and reduce the risk of their escalation through rapid and effective response mechanisms.

The plan should contain the following:

• Outline the steps to be taken in the event of key incidents based on the response, including personal protection for those involved in the response.
• Allocate roles and responsibilities – including the set-up of on-site rapid response teams and emergency response centres (if appropriate)
• Ensure that responses can occur at any time so that there is out-of-hours capability and coverage for key personnel during holiday periods (for example)
• Identify where equipment and materials to deal with the incident are located or can be readily obtained, together with additional personal protective equipment for those dealing with the situation
• Contain up-to-date contact details (including possible hotlines) for key members of staff and external organisations – including the emergency services, technical specialists, regulatory authorities, community groups and media (if necessary)
• Include emergency call-out procedures
• Contain copies of forms for notifying authorities of incidents and actions being taken, as relevant.
• Include stand-down and restart procedures (checklist could be utilised)

Depending on the incident, it may be relevant to set up an ERC (Emergency Response Centre) if the incident is serious or potentially serious.

The content of your plan

Your plan needs to outline processes and procedures that should kick into action once an emergency is identified. Some companies don’t document this but it is a good idea to get it down in writing to avoid misunderstandings, making it available to all employees. Once the emergency has been identified, including any serious accidents that may impact the environment, your plan should clearly outline how everyone will respond.

Think about Chernobyl and how the situation would have been far better controlled if an emergency plan had been in place. The lack of this resulted in panic and confusion that cost lives and affected the planet negatively. Think about supplies that will be required i.e. PPE, breathing apparatus, and cleaning supplies.  This will vary in capacity depending upon whether the emergency is major or minor. You may also need to contact experts who have in-depth knowledge of this type of incident and how to best control it, such as when a chemical or oil spill occurs.

Once you have identified how you would respond, again the details need to be documented, preferably in writing. Many organisations prepare an ISO 14001 Emergency Preparedness and Response Procedures manual, enabling people within the company to refer to it continually. As with all procedures, they should be reviewed on an annual basis or when environmental influences change.

Once the plan has been finalised, it should then be used when an emergency occurs. After any incident, always review the procedures as you may find that real-world experience means that you need to change some of the content. It’s also a good idea to test out procedures with a safely controlled fire or chemical spill, ensuring that your responses are adequate.

Summary

We’ve seen that ISO 14001 details the precise procedures and processes to be put in place by organisations that should be prepared in the case of an environmental disaster. When this is done correctly via the creation of a detailed plan, it can help minimise the impact of the event.

ISO 14001 calls for the emergency plan to deal with:

• Evaluation of the risk of any potential incident occurring
• Creation of scenarios to suit each type of incident i.e. fire, oil spill
• Procedures, internal and external resources and communication with agencies outside of the organisation
• Provision of sufficient staff training
• Routine testing of the plan
• Reviewing and amending the plan as needed

When it comes to training, testing and review of the emergency plan, all employees who may be involved in the response to any type of environmental emergency must fully understand what steps to take, where equipment is located and who to contact.  Training is therefore essential.

At the same time, routine drills should take place to test the effectiveness of the training and the response plan.  The drills should be lifelike, immersing staff in a simulated incident, similar to that which could occur in reality. Their methods of communication with key external organisations such as the emergency services and regulatory authorities should also be checked. Should the drills flag up any weak spots, these should be attended to and the plan updated along with new contact details of any essential individuals and organisations.

Organisations that take heed of Environmental Emergency Preparedness and Response, as referred to in ISO 14001 should then be sufficiently educated, armed, and ready to act should a serious disaster occur.