Environment - What Every Business Needs to Know, The

Supply Management, Jun 9, 2005 by Ginnever, Leigh

The Environment - What Every Business Needs to Know Stewart Anthony Middlesex University Press, £15

*****

All businesses will have an environmental impact of some sort. Stewart Anthony, founder and head of the Centre for Environment and Safety Management at Middlesex University, makes this point clearly and links it to profits.

The structure of the book is user-friendly, giving an introduction to the topic and related legislation. It then moves through environmental issues such as waste, energy and, importantly for SM readers, purchasing and supply. It also links the topics to their environmental impacts.

The final section provides a toolkit for improvement, such as developing an environmental policy or, taking it a stage further, implementing an environmental management system.

Most usefully perhaps, it concludes with a number of checklists and templates.

Thus the book is not meant to be read from cover to cover, but is designed to be a manual for quick and easy reference, demonstrating how different environmental issues can affect an organisation.

Unlike many environmental management handbooks, there is a chapter dedicated to purchasing and supply and clearly links the two fields. It introduces the idea of "whole-life costing", which underpins the Environment Agency's work. Furthermore, the author clearly sets out the benefits of environmental supply chain management, again including the important factor of cost savings.

However, even though the book was published this year, some of the purchasing and supply references are out of date. Readers should consult the Joint Note on Environmental Issues in Purchasing (available from www.ogc.gov.uk/index.asp?=400 or www.sustainable-development.gov.uk) and also the European Commission's guide, Buying Green! (visit europa.eu.int, click on "European Commission", then use the search facility to find Buying Green!).

Overall, this book will be a useful manual for any business that wants to take its environmental impact seriously. Even if you didn't think this area is important to you before, Anthony may convince you otherwise.

Leigh Ginnever

Sustainable procurement adviser

Environment Agency