Costain's Environmental Commitment: A Comprehensive Analysis of Environmental Management Practices in Construction and Engineering

Introduction

Environmental management is becoming a top priority for world legislations and businesses across the world. This need is fueled by environmental changes and the need to protect public lives against harmful substances entering the environment through waterways, air or noise pollution. Environmental management is also important in predicting disasters and preventing their occurrence through environmental assessment and study (Lehmann, 2009). Making environmental management a necessary requirement in most businesses and organizations helps save the organization money through lowering operations costs, saving time by setting goals. Costain is a diverse engineering and construction company providing construction solutions in infrastructure such as roads, railway and water transportation needs. With its headquarters in maidenhead, costain provides construction solutions in the UK and across the world. Currently, Costain employs about 4,000 people in all its branches, providing engineering solutions in the UK and internationally amongst diverse sectors like roads and railways, water and waste management. The organization reported a net profit of £25m on revenues of £935m (Costain, 2020). For students who are seeking expertise in environmental studies dissertation help, understanding the practical applications of environmental management in organizations such as Costain can provide valuable insights.

PART A

Techniques used by the organization currently for measuring, monitoring, and controlling environmental impacts

The organization has adopted various international standards and legislations not only due to customers’ demands for value for money paid on services rendered but also as a need for the company to protect the environment and staff while producing quality goods and services. Costain implemented the following; ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 22301, ISO 27001, BS 11000, Health and safety (BS OHSAS 18001), Collaborative business relationships (BS 11000), Information security management (ISO/IEC 27001), Business continuity management (ISO 22301) and the UK climate change act (Mitchell, 2013).

ISO 9001 is a generic quality management systems provision that states requirements for quality management within an organization. The management system contains five mandatory clauses, which must be implemented by a company under which it makes provisions for general quality management system requirements, management responsibility, resource management, product realization and measurement analysis and improvement. Through implementation of ISO 9001, costain has improved the quality goods and services provided to its clients (Costain, 2020). It also demonstrated its commitment to customers through competence and training of human resources, its ability to meet customer requirements at the same time meet statutory laws and regulatory requirements (Das & Posinasetti, 2015).

ISO 14001 is an international standard that specifies requirements for effective environments management systems. It is aimed at minimizing how business operations affect the environment through an improved and comprehensive environmental performance, in order to align with ISO 4001 standards, an organization has to self-certify. Through self-certification the organization shows its determination and declaration to constantly improve its environmental performance. The organization must also be open to auditing by an external organization in order to seek conformance by various parties interested in the organization such as stakeholders or customers. The organization must also seek to be held accountable by an external organization through creation of a self-declaration (Ding et al., 2016). On completion of self-determination, confirmation, and conformance to environmental management systems and confirmation of self-declaration, the organization is awarded a certification by an external organization. In the UK, ISO 4001 is an important part of the European Union’s Eco management and audit scheme (EMAS), an organization accredited by the national accreditation services. Through its implementation, Costain is required to state and specify risks that come with their operations as well as opportunities they come across and how risks are addressed (Zeng et al., 2010). By adopting the ISO 14001 framework, the company has greatly reduced waste generation by 53% and diverted 93% of the waste from landfills. It has also reduced carbon emission by 46%. Prior to implementation of the universal ISO 14001, the company had its own environmental management system, which was less comparable to other companies. When auditing performance was less measurable, hence competitiveness of the systems could not be measured against other companies (French, 2017).

ISO 22301 provides requirements to protect an organization against disruptions prepare for and reduce, the likelihood of occurrence of disruptions and respond to, whilst recover from disruptions as they occur (Gluch et al., 2014). Through implementation of ISO 22301, Costain moved to a risk-based strategy and built resistance instead of defense against risks. Implementation of the ISO 22301 is very important to Costain, since its service delivery relies on provision of construction solution, an economic activity whose risks is significantly high and may result in massive loss of money, resources and lives if not frequently monitored and assessed (Cosrain Group PLC., 2019).

ISO 27001 provides specifications on security management systems by providing a framework of procedure s and policies for physical and legal controls in an organization (Gluch et al., 2014). There are 14 main domains under ISO 27001, whose primary focus is security. Due to the prevalence of cybercrimes, the domains provide emphasis on mandatory information security, tighter control on software installation, heightened security on user access, physical security, deeper risk assessment, supplier security policy, and streamlined incident reporting, continued compliance with current best practices, better overall organization and keeping a company safe (Cosrain Group PLC., 2019).

BS 11000 (Collaborative Business Relationships) was the world’s first international standard provision on business collaboration and partnership.it enabled organizations implement effective and efficient efforts with entities that shared the same values or goals or mutual benefit entities (Kale & Karaman, 2012). The BS11000 has since been replaced by the ISO 4400. However, it made provisions for three major phases in the implementation of organization collaboration. Stage one made provisions for strategic requirements for collaborative efforts between organizations, this stage helped organizations identify their full potential in order to achieve the mutual goals amongst partnering organizations. Phase two involved the engagement of partners where organizations entering into a partnership deal identified each organization’s strength or weakness and seizing the opportunity to cover areas they both are relatively good at. Phase three covered the management aspects of the partnership by reviewing strategies and sharpening their strengths, eliminating weakness from and initially envisioned project so as to achieve the common goal they both are partnering towards (Costain, 2020). As part of a broader strategy, Costain has employed a strategy to widen the scope of its service delivery, this has required implementation of BS 11000 when forming relationships with new partners in and outside the construction industry. BS 11000 has helped the organization involve with the right partners and that the relationships are set up correctly with a mutual benefit to both parties (Cosrain Group PLC., 2019).

Health and Safety (BS OHSAS 18001), is an occupational health and safety framework that makes provisions for workplace health and safety management. It is a globally recognized health system management which focused on managing an organizations internal environment for a safe and healthy workplace. This system has since been replaced with the ISO 14001. However, it made provisions for identification and control of risks associated with risks in an organization and implementation of health safety management standards within the workplace. Due to the high risk level associated with construction companies, Costain implemented the BS OHSAS 18001 to protect its workers and even started an internal campaign promote safety , manage and mitigate health and safety risks (Smith, 2016). Looking for further insights on Sustainable Event Management at Imperial College? Click here.

Information Security Management (ISO/IEC 27001) is a specification for information security systems management; it makes provisions to protect against information entrusted to the organization by a third party, financial information, employee information, and intellectual property. (ISO/IEC 27001) creates emphasis on security management practices such as confidentiality, integrity, and availability of solutions, to prevent disruption of service provision (Smith, 2016).

Business Continuity Management (ISO 22301) is a contingency plan for business recovery in the event a disaster occurs or there is massive disruption, it makes provisions for management system standards for business continuity management. The main provisions cover organization structure as follows; its internal and external needs this includes setting a clear scope and legal requirements by both stakeholders, staff, regulating authorities and customers (Covello & Merkhoher, 2013).

Leadership; after developing scope of the business the management system creates emphasis on the importance of the organization to provide highly skilled leaders who can implement the business continuity management. Planning of the organization is integral in identifying risks associated with implementation of the business continuity management system, and set a criteria for measuring success of the progress. Support in terms of knowledge from skilled and experienced individuals is a necessity in implementing business continuity management. Staff must be informed of their roles and duties and communication channels must also be clearly outlined between staff and between staff and customers (Lorenzoni & Benson, 2014). Business operation should be constantly analyzed by conducting continuous risk assessment and significantly reducing the incidences within the organization. It is also important at this stage to predict disasters that may occur in the business and prevent them at all costs. System evaluation is essential to measure performance of the business against the initial plan put in place. This can be achieved through internal audit of their main objectives or the overall performance of the business within a certain period of time. The final clause makes provisions for the improvement of management systems put into against overall performance of the business in order to achieve business continuity (Carter, 2014).

UK Climate Change Act 2008 is a ten-year challenge act of parliament of the United Kingdom. It is aimed at reducing greenhouse emissions so as to enable the United Kingdom become a low- carbon economy. The legally binding act gives ministers power to implement measures aimed at putting limits on emissions of greenhouse gases. By virtue of existence of its company in the UK, Costain organization is legally required to comply with the UK climate change act of 2008 (Carter, 2014).

PART B

The Effectiveness of the Organization’s Management Systems in Securing Compliance with Environmental Requirements; Promoting Sustainability and Improving Environmental Performance.

Costain has benefited massively from the implementation of various multiple certifications: • through Adoption of ISO 9001 it has greatly improved customer satisfaction and worked progressively towards the improvement of environmental performance. As a result, Costain has received relatively high scores in the customer satisfaction index, an average of 84% customer satisfaction. It has also demonstrated 90% repeat orders as a result of improved satisfaction. Since the implementation of ISO 14001, Costain has greatly reduced the total amount of waste generated contributing massively to environmental conservation. it has also reduced carbon emissions significantly thereby reducing global warming and positively influencing climate change (Costain, 2020). Costain launched a campaign dubbed the ‘Be Safe’ and ‘Be Healthy’ in line with the requirements of BS OHSAS 18001; these campaigns is aimed towards facilitating a safe working environment, encourage and improve the safety culture, manage and mitigates safety concerns. The campaign was mainly geared towards reducing accidents at work places considering most of their businesses involved the use of heavy machinery and physical manpower, danger looms everywhere. It has since managed to drive towards zero accidents per annum enabling the achievement of 0.09 accident frequency rate (AFR), a significant reduction of up to 47% less accidents over the last five years (Cosrain Group PLC., 2019). Certification of BS 11000 has created confidence in the company amongst various stakeholders and also enabled joint ventures between costain and other establishments. This has highly contributed to the company’s growth and broadened their operations not just in the UK but also other countries in Europe and across the world. Through the deployment of ISO/IEC 2700, the organization has built customers confidence by providing an assurance towards the protection customers confidentiality. It has also built public trust by enabling the protection of its own confidentiality and that of the organizations operations. As a result the organization has positively reported that the number of security incidences has decreased by 72% since the year 2010 (Costain, 2020). However positive the result is the organization still keeps up with current security innovations and threats. With the implementation and achievement of the recent ISO 22301 certification, the company has demonstrated its ability to handle disruptions both internally and externally. It has put in place an intensive management system to cope with foreseeable and unpredictable disruptions within the organization (Cosrain Group PLC., 2019). The implementation has also enabled the organizations preparedness since it has moved from a defensive approach to a risk based approach when handling disruptions within the organization. Costain’s success is embedded in its implementation of ISO 27001 and ISO 22301, which has fitted perfectly with the group’s risk-based strategy to boost performance and maximize resilience. Through auditing the organization has developed practical methods of risk assessment far from what they would have achieved by theoretical assessment, this has enabled them identify their weaknesses as an organization and their strengths. It has also enabled them measure their performance and contribution towards environmental protection which is a growing society expectation and legal requirement in the recent years (Costain, 2020). Adoption of ISO 22301 has enabled the organization make smart decisions in terms of prioritizing on urgent and highly pressing risks by providing a guideline in its requirements . Costain has received extensively wide range of support in its growth and success through auditing and certification by various external auditing organizations to ensure they were headed in the right direction as an organization while providing services to its customers (Costain, 2020). With a wide range of management and environmental certifications, boasts quality service provision, environmental protection against air pollution, which was initially their major contributor in pollution and a significant reduction in soil pollution. It also ensures protection of its workers against injuries within the organization and in their respective fields of work.

Costain is also very proud of the tangible and observable benefits that the standards have enabled it deliver, an achievement the rest of the public would be proud of since it impacts people’s lives and the environment directly. While the global construction industry continues to change rapidly, the company has demonstrated that it has a wide scope of quality management frameworks in place to drive business performance, reduce risk, and achieve sustainable growth. These frameworks had been implemented years ago and are still improved as the years go by therefore addressing newly developing risks (Costain, 2020).

The UK climate change act, which came into force in 2008 celebrated its first 10 year mark by observing a significant change in reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, the government advisory committee on climate change set an 80% target on carbon emission reduction by 2015. By providing detailed proposals and policies, the committee also analyses the overall performance of the project (Webb, 2011). Significant benefits have been realized since implementation of the project in 2008. It’s important to note that the UK has achieved 44% less greenhouse gas emissions below the 1990 emission levels as at 2018 and is currently on its 2nd ten year carbon reduction challenge. The act has placed the UK in a top position international leadership position in the fight for climate change. Through creation of this act, the UK has managed to approve carbon budgets, which are aimed providing a practical solution towards reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and increased it resilience to climate change, this act has also enabled consideration for implementation of other defenses in dealing with disasters arising from climate change such as floods (Sampaio et al., 2009).

PART C

Evaluate the Role of Leadership on Environmental Performance in the Organization

Customer satisfaction; With the constantly changing environment, customer objectives vary from just basic construction needs to environmental protection requirements in totality, putting into accountability effects of how construction services offered by the organization would affect the air, land and water surroundings. Implementation of various ISO standards and certification of the BS 11000 has created a balance between management, quality service provision, and satisfaction of customer’s needs (Nawrocka et al., 2009).

Efficiency; Regular and constant auditing within the organization has ensured improved quality of goods and services provided by the organization as well as improve efficiency in environmental systems management. Auditing ensures provisions from various management systems are implemented from the managerial bodies to the workers in the field. This has not only ensured protection of human resources but also protection of the environment when implemented,

Better environmental performance; provisions of one act is in alignment with provisions of other acts, this creates a balance between management and environmental protection. Therefore improving environmental performance it totality, various provisions look address various environmental needs for example ISO 9001 makes provisions for improving competence within an organization through training human resources, this not only ensures quality service provision as well as environmental protection (Disterer, 2013).

Enhanced health and safety; leadership within an organization starts with the management of staff and protection of their life and health during and after work. Implementation of BS OHSAS 18001has provided a framework for accountability of each and every staff. Environmental systems management puts the value of life and health at a greater bar above service production and any risk that may evolve during and after work (Zawada, 2014).

Stronger collaborative working ventures; through leadership Environmental systems management has enabled growth of the origination and collaborations between Costain and other service providers to achieve goals it wouldn’t have necessarily achieved by itself. It has also created confidence to venture into newer territories over the years from provision of construction solutions to road and rail construction as well as waterway movement and technology.

Secure information management; information is power. In a world where there’s constant need to protect not only people’s lives but also property against various enemies such as terrorism, implementation of environmental systems management is key (Sharp, 2012). Costain is involved in construction of road, railways and water ways which could be a hub for terrorism activities when neglected. Management of information between hierarchies in the organization ensure information does not fall into wrong hands hence protect not only the lives of people working in the organization but also the general public and their property.

Increased business resilience; with growing tougher economic times and significant competition, the implementation of environmental systems management strategies has given costain and upper hand against companies that have not implemented environmental management strategies. It has enabled them build resistance through a comprehensive disaster management and deployed various measures to avert disasters. In the event the organization cannot avert a disaster, environmental performance is still boosted through preparedness and building resistance on pressure amounted from the effects of a disaster (Stallworthy, 2009).

Customer benefits and Higher customer satisfaction; every organization needs customers to enable its existence and growth. To enable customer satisfaction, Costain has adopted and implemented environmental systems management strategy’s, which have not only protected the customer’s needs but also built customers client confidence in the organization (Adger et al., 2009). Environmental systems management has provided values and co- values which clients base their expectations from and measure the organizations performance. Having stayed in the business for years, Costain has gained widely from customer satisfaction and protection of customers’ needs.

Reduced waste and greater energy efficiency; waste management is just as expensive as waste production. It involves the use of energy both and reduction of waste significantly reduces the amount of energy used in it production and management. Through waste reduction, Costain has saved money in production costs and management; it has also saved energy and promoted its efficiency.

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PART D

Reflection

Environmental management has played an important role in the growth of Costain as a business over the years. Constant certification and implementation of various management systems has enabled its smooth growth and transition to a multinational company. Environmental management has covered all the needs and different aspects of the organization from management, customer needs, and environmental needs (Oi et al., 2012). Environmental systems management has also made provisions on intertwining issues cutting across all three that may lead to a misunderstanding, creating a solution to problems yet to arise. Environmental systems management techniques have become a reference point for measuring. Monitoring and controlling environmental impacts. It also holds organizations and various stakeholders accountable for actions performed against guidelines provided that may lead disasters or enable further deterioration of an impending disaster. Through creation of provisions, stating roles and guidelines environmental management techniques adopted by the organization may improve its existence or break the organization when broken (Paillé et al., 2014). Constant revision and improvement of environmental systems management align with the constantly changing environmental needs; however, the constant improvement of environmental systems management techniques is what is attributed towards making an organization better. Inclusion of new provisions when need arises, shows the flexibility of various environmental systems techniques to adapt to new technologies, new organization systems, new discoveries and constantly changing customer requirements and needs. Adaptation of various environmental systems management techniques by various governments and external organizations such auditing and certification organizations show the superiority and effectiveness the provisions hold (De Villiers et al., 2011). The total inclusion of various parties and balance adopted by environmental systems management in addressing issues between an organization, customers and environmental provisions shows fairness. It reflects extensive research and positively guided approach towards selection of its recommendations and provisions. Constant revision and reflection of provisions of various environmental systems management techniques shows its adaptation to changing moments in time. For example, global warming is becoming a leading concern of environmental changes across the world. With rising sea levels and excessive drought, organizations may be required to reduce acts that impact the environment negatively (Bassi & Duffy, 2016). System management techniques would respond to pressing arising issues such as these and make provisions both legal and voluntary towards achieving a healthy environment. Adaptation of the use of technology for research reflects competitiveness in coming up with and concluding provisions. Evidence-based generic approaches are implemented to enable all organizations adapt them into their management systems with ease and flexibility.

In conclusion, environmental systems management techniques are wholesome, quality management techniques that in general have put into consideration previous, present, and future organizational needs and have provided competitive solutions for the same (Ockwell et al., 2009). These provisions however are not mandatory for all organizations across the world and cannot necessarily be adopted by all organizations. Voluntary implementation of systems management by certain organizations and not others still create a gap for disasters to occur and affect the rest of the population including those that have implemented the recommended techniques. World trade unions should make it a mandatory requirement to adopt and implement environmental systems management techniques to measure, monitor, and control environmental impacts (Maier & Hadrich, 2011).

organization systems management techniques also makes provisions only for implementation of methods to measure, monitor and control environmental impacts, it does not make provisions for consequences that should be faced by organizations that do not implement such provisions, this provides a partial solution to environmental management needs (Golden, 2017). In solution, environmental management techniques should also make provisions for legal consequences when provisions are abused or not adhered to by organizations. These consequences should be part of economic and legal laws of every country so as to achieve a common environmental impact goal.

Certification and auditing for various types of techniques adopted by and organization may be slow and costly since different external organizations certify adherence to different management techniques. The process may take long to approve and gazette. A single certification body should be created around the world and every country mandated to have a branch that certifies organizations within its jurisdiction while adherering to the same provisions globally (Nash, 2009).

The generic nature of various measuring techniques may make it easy for larger companies to adopt and difficult for smaller companies to adopt, this creates a competitiveness gap between these companies as they have a reputation against smaller companies. Provisions stated by various systems management techniques should put into consideration the needs of small, medium and large organizations and make recommendation by size, needs and general challenges faced by organizations at various stages of growth (Dubey et al., 2015).

Conclusion

Through successful implementation of environmental systems managements, organizations can significantly improve the overall performance of an organization. By developing better compliance to regulatory requirements, an organization is able to adhere to a country’s environmental legal requirements, which in most instances align with environmental management provisions. It enables cost reduction through effective use of resources guided by implementation of policies and less tight regulations on the organization, which has successfully implemented environmental management systems. Disadvantages to the system include varying cost of operation and implementation of the system. This may be unfavorable especially to smaller and medium enterprises. This includes high cost of training staff on the implementation of environmental management systems. The scope of environmental systems management may be too broad to effectively implement in some organizations as it covers every aspect of management.

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