The Glasgow Caledonian University

The Glasgow Caledonian UniversityINTRODUCTIONGlasgow Caledonian University is one of the largest universities in Scotland with nearly 17,000 students. This intromission was establish in 1993, as a result of the merger of Queens College Glasgow with the Glasgow polytechnic (GCU website).The refuge is situated right in the heart of Glasgow city centre. at that place exist increasingly, a lot of activities vent on within this university devising a growing case for the importance of managing the surroundingsal meets associated with its activities, products and services. Recognising this concern that university immovable to act responsibly by making serious commitments towards a sustainable place to work and study. The commitment paid off with the recent bronze demo awarded to the university by Eco campus after an off-site analyse. Despite this achievement, there is yet a general lack of knowingness about the process and there get down been no visible amendment in environme ntal accomplishment.Therefore, this hatch seeks to localise the universitys main activities with significant impact to the environment, explain the relationship between environmental Management System (EMS) and Eco campus, examine the role of eco campus in achieving the ISO14001 affirmation and finall(a)y suggest steps needed to be taken by the University to attain the next form-silver awards presented by Eco campus.ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS OF GLASGOW CALEDONIAN UNIVERSITY WITH SIGNIFICANT IMPACT.Universities are at present regarded as small cities due to their large size, population and the various thickening activities taking place in them (Abubakar et al, 2008). Glasgow Caledonian university being one of the universities in Scotland, has going in it a complex add of activities ( tones) which could have direct or indirect impact on the environment which provide result in environmental sustainability or could lead to the degradation of the environment. Such environmental med ical prognosiss includes light body of water and get-up-and-go use- including electricity and heat consumption (Noeke, 2000), consumption of materials (e.g. food, paper, equipment, etc.), procurement, propagation and disposal of all kinds of waste matter, construction (including refurbishment) and demolition activities, transport to and fro the university (Edith Cowan University, 2009), workshop and research laboratory use, lectures, research and sporting activities, community support services (Abubakar et al, 2008) and finally the readiness of student and staff accommodation.WHAT IS AN ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (EMS)Environmental circumspection dust is a anxiety ashes used by an arrangement to develop and implement its own environmental policy and manage its environmental aspects (International samples organisation, 2005). It involves the development of environmental policy statement, carrying into action of that policy (through appropriate objectives/targets, neat responsibilities, organised structure, action plans and established procedures), creating awareness and training, performance monitoring and audit and lastly endless improvement on previous policy.Denning CycleThe Environmental concern system approach to the management of environmental impacts was based on the Plan-Do-Check-ACT (PDCA) cycle commonly known as the Denning cycle shown above. The Plan aspect involves, environmental baseline review, setting of objectives, duty assignment of responsibilities and the preparation of plans, programmes and procedures. The Do aspect involves implementation of these shopworns, procedures and action plans. The Check aspect involves environmental monitoring and auditing of the utilise procedures, action plans and objectives. Then the Act involves the review by management and the continuous improvement of the environmental policy.Though ISO14001 standard produced by the International archetype Organisation (ISO) in 1995 is generally acc epted as the global standard for certifying environmental management systems, there still exists early(a) standards much(prenominal) as Eco Management and Audit Scheme- which is an European standard established by European regulation 1836/93 as a voluntary initiative to improve companies performance (Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment, 2009) and the British standard-BSI 8555, which is a national environmental management system intended towards a staged approach to implementation. Several such(prenominal) national environmental management systems exist across the globeWHAT IS ECO CAMPUSEco campus is a national environmental management system development program and award scheme developed by the high(prenominal) education sector for the higher education to improve environmental performance using a phases and standard approach (Eco campus, 2009). The project is funded by the higher education funding council for England (HEFCE) and is a collaborative project betwee n Nottingham Trent University (NTU), Loreus Ltd, Environment Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC) AND Environment Campaign- ENCAMS (EAUC, 2009). Eco campus achieves improve environmental performance through the issuance of four awards which are ordinarily done in phases. The awards include Bronze, Silver, Gold and platinum. With each being a product of a particular phase. The bronze award is the lowest of the awards plot the platinum award is the highest and is equivalent to the ISO14001 standards.Based on the released Eco campus audit criteria promulgated in 2008, the Bronze award is give to institutions that have shown senior management commitment to environmental management, carried out environmental baseline review of environmental aspects, developed a draft of environmental policy and are relate in creating awareness of the process. The Silver awards (being the 2nd phase award) is given to higher institutions that have identified the significant environmental a spects of the universitys operations, identified the legal and other fatalitys related to its environmental aspects, developed environmental objectives and targets and have produced a finalised environmental policy register. Further much, the achievement of the Eco campus Gold awards is tied to the completion of the side by side(p) processes, assigning roles and responsibilities towards meeting environmental objectives and targets, ensuring that the personnel knotted in the implementation of the environmental policy are competent and adequately trained, developing and implementing standard available control procedures, ensuring proper documentation and communication of processes involved and putting in place systems that exit identify emergencies and respond to them. Finally, the platinum award is given only to institutions who have shown adherence to monitoring and measurements of environmental aspects of the university, performing ingrained audits on universitys environment al performance and regularly review of environmental performance by management.THE BENEFITS AND LIMITATION OF IMPLEMENTING ECOCAMPUS IN GLASGOW CALEDONIAN UNIVERSITYThe eco campus being an environmental management system has a number of limitations to its operation. But the benefits of implementing the eco campus environmental management system far-off outweigh the limitations (Eco campus, 200). These benefits may include the followingEco campus will help the university to in effect improve its environmental performance in phases, thereof helping the institution to gradually establish a standard environmental management practice. This will in the commodious run, facilitate its certification to standard environmental practices such as ISO14001 (Caledonian Environmental centre, 2009) and will reduce the overall cumulative impact on financial as well as human resources associated in the initial establishment of such standards.Eco campus will improve cooperation and environmental awa reness among staff, student and other relevant stakeholders (Melnyk et al, 2003). This will as reported by Abubakar et al (2008) bring a change in the way the university exploits its resources and develops its technology. therefore leading to reduced operational salute (profitability), increased efficiency and lastly environmental sustainability.Eco campus will enhance the universitys compliance to regulations and codes of broad(a) practice. Thereby promoting better relationship with both the regulators and the general public. This will help reduce enforcement or civil actions and other direct or hidden legal greet associated with non compliance to regulations (GCU sustainability website, 2009)Eco campus will help the University to effectively manage the impacts of its activities on the environment and improve its environmental performance. Enviro campus (2007) pointed out that, this will enhance the reputation of the university thus encouraging high student recruitment, better public perception and more community support.Eco campus will have significant effect on equal saving through, reduction of cost associated with waste disposal, efficient use of resources (e.g. energy, water etc.), avoidance of cost associated with non compliance to legislations and reduction in insurance cost (Wikipedia, 2009)Though benefits abound there still exist a number of limitations associated with the implementation of the Eco campus Environment Management system. The Glasgow Caledonian university website (2009) suggested some to include it takes a long time to implement and monitor and it requires proper documentation, adequate training and good communication for it to be successful. In my own opinion other limitations will include the fact that it requires high level of commitment by the management for it to be successful and that it still requires human and financial resources though undersize compared to the full implementation of a standard Environmental Management sy stem like ISO14001.CURRENT GLASGOW CALEDONIAN UNIVERSITYS ECO CAMPUS STATUS AND IMPLICATIONS TO ATTAINING ISO14001 CERTIFCATION.Glasgow Caledonian University was presented the bronze award by the Eco campus director in Bournemouth University on the 1st of July 2009 (Glasgow Caledonian university website, 2009) as an award for meeting up with the minimum criteria of the Eco campus project for the bronze phase. The reports found on the Universitys website indicated the following achievements of the naturalize to have warranted it the eco campus bronze awards.The university showed senior management commitment to the Eco campus scheme by establishing an Eco campus team (comprising of the Caledonian Environmental centre, School of built and natural environment, facilities management work up of the university, student association and the Caledonian environmental society students group) headed by Therese Fraser, to oversee the implementation of the Eco campus environmental management sy stem. This team went ahead to produce the draft of the Universitys environmental policyThe University carried out the environmental baseline review of more than vanadium basic management areas exceeding by far the minimum requirement set out for the bronze phase. The management area include waste management, environmental management systems, sustainable procurement, transport, health welfare and safety, environmental policy, energy and water, emissions and discharges, biodiversity and community involvement.The university provided and is still appropriate environmental training for staff involved in the Eco campus programme.The implication of this current position to attaining its target of ISO14001 certification is that the institution is still at the planning phase. It will have to move from that phase to the implementation phase which involves acknowledgement of environmental aspects and legal requirements, setting objectives and target, establishing standard procedures toward s achieving this targets/objectives, formalising the environmental policy and its implementation. And then continuously review and improve on policies and practices. But since the university is using a phased approach-Eco campus, it thus means that, it will have to pass through the silver, gold and platinum phases before thinking of acquire the ISO14001 certification. The platinum award is an equivalent for ISO14001 standard. So reaching that platinum status will facilitate the easy acquisition of the ISO14001 certification.PRACTICAL STEPS IN MOVING GLASGOW CALEDONIAN TO THE SILVER AWARDSMoving from the bronze phase to the silver phase involves meeting the criteria for the silver phases. The Eco campus audit criteria published in 2008 listed the criteria to include identification of its significant environmental aspects, identification of legal and other requirements associated with these aspects, setting objectives and targets, producing a final copy of the environmental policy an d communicating this policy to all relevant stake holders. So for the university to achieve the silver status the following practical steps have to be taken.The university has to first thoroughly identify and document all the activities of the university that has significant impact on the environmentThe arcsecond step is to identify and document all legal and other requirement associated with the above environmental aspectsThe next step is to set up and document objectives and targets in relation to managing the environmental aspectsUsing the information above, the university should produce a formal copy of its environmental policy which will be sign-language(a) by the top management indicating the management commitment to the processLastly, the environmental policy should be adequately communicated to the staff, students and all other relevant stakeholders in the university community.CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS