What's the point?
Dr. Birgit Gieren is the head of department at VNU and the contact person for practical environmental management issues.
The department is the bridge between the management system and the practical requirements of corporate environmental protection.
The department discusses and transports, for example, news from the DIN EN ISO 14001:2015 standard.
The adaptation to the "High Level Structure" (HLS), which will in future apply to all management system standards, was completed with the publication of the new standard.
There are many open questions when it comes to practical implementation:
- How can the context of an organisation be determined?
- What are interested parties and how do you structure the dialogue with them?
- The knowledge of the organisation becomes more and more valuable - how is knowledge preserved and usable for other people / generations?
- What are the risks from the point of view of environmental care and what are the resulting opportunities?
- How do we define the binding obligations?
- With increased management responsibility, integration into business processes is desired - how does this work?
- The life cycle of products and services should be taken into account - how far can and must we take the supply / distribution chain into account?
- What are the (significant) environmental aspects of (production) processes, products and services and how do we assess their environmental impact?
The department and the interaction of the members of the VNU should bring the requirements / concepts of the new standard to life and thus ensure their practical implementation and increase the environmental performance of the company.
How do I integrate environmental protection/environmental management into my day-to-day business?
What can you expect?
In coordination with the VNU Board, we are planning in this department:
- Publication of information as required
- Lectures at events of the association
- Point of contact for your questions and suggestions on practical environmental management