ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (ISO 14001) IN THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENCE HOW TO MAKE IT WORK?

Stefanie Roth Defence Corporate Services and Infrastructure Centre North Queensland, Building 611, Lavarack Barracks, Townsville MILPO 4813, AUSTRALIA e-mail: stefanie.roth@defence.gov.au Michelle Walker GHD Townsville, GPO Box 930, Townsville QLD 4810, AUSTRALIA. e-mail: lloydmichelle@yahoo.com

SUMMARY
The Department of Defence is committed to sustainable environmental management in support of Australian Defence Force capability and has decided to establish and EMS. This poses a challenge because of the extent of the estate (Training Areas, Industrial Sites etc) and the diversity of military operations (Navy, R&D, Infrastructure Development etc). On the corporate level the Department has developed a policy, strategic objectives, compliance manual, EMS internet site, training and awareness, and communication strategies. A prototype site EMS at RAAF Base Townsville has also been developed. This prototype will form the basis for standardising site EMS across Defence sites. Key features of the prototype include a detailed and specific analysis of obligations; standardised aspects; an implementation plan structured around command structures, and detailed implementation tasks. Challenges still ahead include implementation of the site EMS, standardisation across the nation and expansion of EMS into other areas such as research and new capability acquisition. Keywords: Environmental Management System, Defence, ISO14001

1 BACKGROUND
In 2001 the Commonwealth Agencies agreed to implement an Environmental Management System (EMS) according to ISO Standard 14001 by December 2002 and to work towards accreditation of one major site by 2003. Establishing an EMS in the Department of Defence is a big task, because there are a myriad of different types of interactions with the environment: Military Operations, Military Training, Estate Maintenance, Estate Development, Science and Technology development, acquisition of new capability etc. It therefore warrants providing some background information about the Department and its environmental management before entering into discussing the EMS. 1.1 Environmental Management in Defence

Environmental Management (EM) resides with the Infrastructure Planning and Environment Branch within Infrastructure Division. The Head Infrastructure Division is the designated delegate for environmental management. It is his responsibility to effectively communicate EM and to facilitate its implementation across the Department. He is supported by the Defence Environment and Energy Forum (where all Groups and Services are represented on one-star-level and the Defence Environment and Energy Working Group. He is also supported by a team of environmental officers within the central office and in the regions. 1.2 EM tools in Defence Environmental Management Plans (EMPs); Environmental Certificates of Compliance (ECCs); Environmental Management Works (EM Works); and Environmental Chapters in Standing Orders. Defence Instructions General have been issued for Departmental Environmental Management matters. They set the scene and requirements for EMPS ECCs and other Defence EM tools.

Pre-EMS - EM in Defence used the following tools:

The Department of Defence consists of the following groups and services: Output Executive Streams: HQ Australian Theatre, Army, Navy, Air Force, Strategy and Intelligence; Owner Support Executive Streams Vice Chief of the Defence Force, Chief Finance Officer, Defence Personnel Executive, Public Affairs and Corporate Communication, Inspector General, Security as well as Defence Science and Technology Organisation; and Enabling Executive Streams Defence Materiel Organisation as well as Corporate Services and Infrastructure Group. This Group consists of three Divisions: Infrastructure, Information Systems and Service Delivery Division.

EMPs are site or operation specific plans that provide guidance for conducting Defence activities in an environmentally sustainable manner. Consultants develop them in collaboration with the site commanders and the regional environmental officer. They contain the information on which ECC conditions and EM Works are developed. ECCs are a type of internal licence that is issued for every Defence activity. They prescribe conditions for safeguarding the environmentally sustainable conduct of these activities. Usually, they are issued for activities that have potential environmental impact but NOT significant impact. Activities with significant impact would obviously be controlled actions under EPBC (Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act) and are being referred to Environment Australia. At the present time, if the action were permitted by Environment Australia, ECCs would be used to enforce their conditions. EMPs also list implementation tasks in the area of estate and infrastructure maintenance and enhancement. These are called EM Works and encompass activities like pest management, stormwater management, contaminated soil remediation and other environmental management issues. EMPs also provide the basis for developing environmental chapters within Standing Orders. Standing Orders are developed for units, bases and training areas and provide a summary of military orders that have to be followed by all users of these sites. They provide an important instrument for establishing the environmentally sustainable use of bases and training areas and environmentally sustainable behaviour of military personnel and civilian users.

endangered species management. It is planned to expand the implementation of the EMS to redevelopment, science and technology as well as new capability acquisition projects. 2.1 Integrating top-down and bottom-up approach

Similar to other big organisations the Department of Defence aims at integrating a top-down-approach of EMS development with a bottom-up-approach. Within the top-down approach the Department has expressed its commitment to environmental sustainable management in its new environmental policy. The policy formulates six strategic objectives, which are structured around putting in place a functional EMS. On the corporate level the Department also has developed a compliance manual, an EMS-internet-site, a training and awareness strategy as well as an external liaison and internal communication strategy. The bottom-up-approach is characterised by developing the specifics of a site-based EMS through prototype development for one site: RAAF Base Townsville. The experiences made in this process have been incorporated in a corporate standardised Statement of Requirement for the development of an Environmental Sustainability Management Plan (ESMP). The application of this statement of requirement will replace the current EMP process and, thus, lead the consultants working for Department of Defence in supporting the Department in developing a standardised EMS for all sites nation wide. 2.2 EMS site boundaries

EMS IN DEFENCE

The Department of Defence is the largest public landholder with 660 properties and 3 million hectares of land. Thus, it faces the task of maintaining land, buildings and infrastructure. Defence activities can have very little impact on the environment because it can be part of the mission not to leave a trace for the enemy, which is synonymous with not impacting on the environment. On the other hand, activities like refuelling airplanes during an exercise, using high explosives on land or water as well as artillery fire can have high impacts on the environment if not managed appropriately. Currently the EMS is being developed with emphasis on the management of bases and training areas. Bases, which usually include workshops, living-inaccommodation, office buildings etc, face issues similar to other small industrial sites, whereas training areas usually pose land management issues such as pest and/or

Since the Department has around 660 properties the question needed to be asked whether an EMS would be developed for every site or only for the larger sites. A compromise has been found by chosing a base as the starting point for an EMS and by drawing the EMSboundary around responsibility lines. The EMS development for a particular base will take into account all activities happening on the base or planned, controlled and influenced from the base. This will for example include range management on training areas (TA) and environmental management of reserve depots and other facilities that are not located on but controlled from that base. Where previously two EMPs would have been developed, one for a base and one for a TA, now one EMS will integrate the environmental tasks for both. The EMS boundaries will be accountability boundaries traced back to a particular base.

EMS PROTOTYPE RAAF BASE TOWNSVILLE

We began developing the EMS for RAAF Base Townsville by integrating EMS elements into the old EMP format. Formerly, EMPs were structured around issues of managing components of the environment, eg storm water-, flora-, fauna - management. While this format was effective at describing the environment and identifying the major issues, its major weakness was in setting out effective actions required for implementation of the EMP. We had to find a way to add the perspective of managing Defence activities that can impact on the environment, and appropriate delegation of responsibilities. This change of perspective is important for identifying the environmental aspects as required in ISO 14001. The EMP for RAAF Base Townsville as it stands at the moment represents the plan for establishing an EMS at RAAF Base Townsville. Therefore, it is called EMS-EMP in the context of this paper (and the time being). 3.1 Structure of EMS-EMP for RAAF BASE Townsville

special? One speciality of this EMS-EMP is that we put a lot of emphasis on detail. We wanted the legislative and other requirements to be analysed in a way that measurable objectives and targets would be derived from the legislation. From the comparison of Commonwealth, State and Local Government legislation as well as Defence Instructions and Australian Standards, specific detail regarding Defences obligations at RAAF Townsville was determined. The obligations were divided into three categories: outcome obligations (performance indicators); infrastructure obligations (eg need for bunding) and procedural obligations (eg need for maintenance). Clear definition of these three categories will also assist in the implementation phase of the EMS as the different obligation categories correspond well to different responsible personnel and management structures within Defence e.g. Outcome Obligations (Performance Indicators) responsibility of Corporate Services Infrastructure Group (Infrastructure Division) - Environment and Heritage Manager Infrastructure Obligations - responsibility of CSIC (ID) - Estate Planning Manager or CSIC (Service Delivery Division) - Garrison Support Contracts Manager Procedural Obligations - responsibility of Military Units We also requested all activities and facilities to be assessed in order to identify the environmental aspects as interaction with the environment not as impacts. (Impacts come into play when assessing the significance of the environmental aspects in a risk assessment process but should not be confused with environmental aspects.) With over 14 units on the base and over 100 activities identified, approximately 200 risks were identified for assessment on the base. The assessment was standardised through the use of the following significant environmental aspects: contaminated aqueous solution discharge, fluid leaks and spills, explosion/fire emission, potential contaminated soil leachate, noise emission, air emission, ozone depleting gases release, greenhouse gas release, soil and vegetation disturbance, contaminated waste production, regulated waste production, rare flora species locality, weed control, protected fauna habitat, vermin propagation and cultural heritage. 3.3 Integrating top-down and buttom-up approach on site level as a means of finding order in the chaos

The current EMS-EMP consists of two core documents, the Environmental Strategy (ES), (Volume 1B), and the Implementation Plan (Volume2). An Environmental Strategy Overview (Volume 1A) has also been developed which summarises key aspects of the ES for interested parties without the scientific detail and bulk of the ES document. The Environmental Strategy sets out the planning phase of the EMS-EMP. It provides background information on the site, the activities undertaken and their environmental aspects, the surrounding environment, the Defence Policy and legal obligations. The ES sets environmental objectives and targets based on this information. Broad strategies for managing the environmental aspects and achieving the objectives are also developed within the ES. The Implementation Plan sets out the implementation and operation, checking and corrective action and management review phases of the EMS, as per ISO14001. These phases include training and awareness, communication mechanisms and EMS document control. Integral to the IP is providing information about environmental management structures and responsibilities. A comparison of the structure of RAAF EMS-EMP to ISO 14001 is presented as Figure 1. 3.2 What is special about the EMS-EMP for RAAF Base Townsville?

This description probably sounds pretty familiar to every environmental planner or EMS developer. What is

By putting so much emphasis on detail we created a lot of confusion. We found a lot of different activities and facilities, many different players (ie military units,

contractors, civilian management personnel), and a range of targets and performance indicators. How did we put order in the chaos? Once again by combining top-down and bottom-up approach. The planning phase of the EMS, contained within the Environmental Strategy (ES) documentation, is sorted top-down that is by the following issues: storm water-, groundwater-, sewage-, acoustic- (incl. noise, vibration, electromagnetic radiation), air- (incl. ozone and greenhouse), soil- (contaminated sites), solid waste-, natural resource- (incl. energy, water), flora-, fauna-, cultural heritage-, fire-, environmental health- and public access - management. For each issue, objectives (eg maintain storm water quality) and performance indicators (eg noise levels <105 dB from firing range) were derived from legislative and other requirements. As the aspects and activities were well defined, strategies of how to manage environmental aspects were easily developed. Many of the strategies involved incorporation of infrastructure and procedural obligations defined in the obligations section eg "The impact of <aspect> from <activity> will be minimised by <infrastructure obligation>." The Implementation Plan (IP) integrates the bottomup elements: ie the activities of the base and their environmental aspects with structure and responsibility groupings. The Implementation plan also integrates the bottomup with the top-down elements of the EMS-EMP. Sorted by command-structures implementation tasks have been formulated for implementing the strategies in order to achieve the objectives by managing the environmental aspects. These implementation tasks can be of different types: a Standard Operating Procedure for military personnel, an amendment to contracts for maintenance and service delivery contractors, a new infrastructure maintenance task or environmental management works. One important feature of the EMS-EMP was ensuring that the mechanisms used to implement the required tasks corresponded to the current management structures. Hence for military personnel, whose main responsibilities are to meet procedural obligations, implementation consists primarily of implementing (including updating, training in, reporting) Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Figure 2 provides an example of the operating and implementation section of the IP for a military unit. This section is an on-going section as procedures need to be constantly undertaken. Infrastructure upgrades on the other hand are once-off activities. The CSIC (ID) Estate Planning Manager is

responsible for infrastructure upgrades on base through the Comprehensive Maintenance Contract. The EMSEMP has listed and prioritised required infrastructure upgrades in a manner compatible with the Defence Estate Management System (DEMS), a computerised system. An example is provided in Figure 3. Similar detail and consideration of systems was provided for other implementation tasks (eg EM Works, maintenance contract amendments).

4 CONCLUSIONS
The RAAF Townsville EMS-EMP can be seen as an important starting point for the development of a siteEMS-network within the Department of Defence. The following challenges, however, still lie ahead. The EMS-EMP for RAAF Base Townsville in its current form needs to be implemented. A lot of liaison and environmental training with military personnel will be necessary in order to make it work. However, the liaison and training can build on the processes that were already established in workshops during the development process of the EMS-EMP. Effective communication and implementation will be challenged by the two year posting cycle within Defence, which requires repetitive training of new personnel. Using the RAAF Townsville EMS-EMP as a model for standardisation of the development of all sites EMS will help to circumvent the discontinuity in management and day-to-day procedures imposed by the posting cycle. Another challenge will be developing the EMS for RAAF Base Townsville along the site-EMS boundaries described above. This will require the integration of existing EMPs for reserve depots, a practice area, antennae sites etc. into the RAAF Townsville EMS. It will then serve as prototype for a standardised Defence site-EMS across the nation. Parallel to developing a network of site EMS, the Department of Defence will face the task of extending the EMS development process to other divisions within Corporate Services and Infrastructure Group and to the other groups and services within the Department for those Defence activities that are not covered in the siteEMS. The Departments method of EMS development that integrates top-down and bottom-up approaches on different levels in the corporate environment will provide the success of meeting above mentioned challenges.

5 REFERENCES
[1] AS/NZS ISO 14001: Australian / New Zealand Standard, Environmental Management Systems -

Specifications

with

guidance

for

use.

Standards

Australia and Standards New Zealand, 1996.

ISO14001 REQUIREMENTS

RAAF EMS DOCUMENTATION 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Environmental Strategy (ES) Introduction Environmental Policy Legal and Other Requirements Site Information Description of Environment Environmental Aspects and Risk Assessment Environmental Objectives and Targets

4.1 4.2 4.3 4.3.1 4.3.2 4.3.3 4.3.4 4.4 4.4.1 4.4.2 4.4.3 4.4.4 4.4.5 4.4.6 4.4.7 4.5 4.5.1 4.5.2 4.5.3 4.5.4 4.6

General requirements Environmental policy Planning Environmental aspects Legal and other requirements Objectives and targets Environmental management programme(s) Implementation and operation Structure and responsibility Training, awareness and competence Communication Environmental management system documentation Document control Operational control Emergency preparedness and response Checking and corrective action Monitoring and measurement Nonconformance and corrective and preventive action Records Environmental management system audit Management review

Environmental Strategy

Implementation Plan

Implementation Plan (IP) 1. Introduction 2. Environmental Objectives 3. Structure and Responsibility 4. Training, awareness and competence 5. Communication of Environmental Information 6. Document Control System and Records 7. Checking and Corrective Action 8. Emergency Preparedness and Response 9. Environmental Operation and Implementation by Military Unit 10. Environmental Operation and Implementation by CSIC-NQ

Figure 1: Comparison of the structure of RAAF EMS to ISO 14001

Operation and Implementation: 323 CSS Airfield Operations Support Flight WORAD Standard Operating Procedures Activities with environmental aspects undertaken by WORAD are tabulated below against the relevant operational procedure.

SOP Title

Includes Activity Equip Storage Bldg 156 Soldering Bldg 156

Procedure No. RAAF EMP 12 RAAF EMP 31

Principal Custodian OIC Logistic Services Flight WORAD

Unit Authorising Officer WORAD

Last Update June 2001 June 2001

To implement strategies 7.10.3.5

Warehouse Management Soldering

FSGT WKSP

7.1.3.5 7.3.3.3 7.5.3.1 7.6.3.6 7.12.3.4

Figure 2: Example of Military Unit Implementation

Environmental Operation and Implementation by CSIC (SDD) Garrison Support Contract Manager Pest Fauna Management

Ident.

Location

Responsibilities

Resources (Personnel, Equipment and Cost) CSIC: SD $ To be determined by contract negotiation

Timeframe

Priority Rating

To Implement Strategies 10.3.3.3

GSC 8

Buildings 140, 141, 142 and 143

1. CSIC: SD Contracts Manager 2. Contractor

2004 /5

Low (10)

Actions / Steps 1. Garrison Support Contract Section 12, Annex A, Table 12A.4 to be amended to include Building No. 140, 141, 142 and 143 (Bomb Preparation Areas) as buildings requiring pest and vermin control program services. Sufficient clauses currently exist regarding treatment requirements, chemical control and reporting of infestations / treatments. 2. CSIC-NQ (SDD) to allow for review of Garrison support contract by CSIC-NQ (ID) EHM and Base Commanding Officer prior to letting of contract 3. CSIC-NQ (SDD) to advise CSIC-NQ (ID) EHM, Base Commanding Officer and OICs of all units when new contract is awarded, and implications of new contract to all personnel (As detailed in Section 3)

Figure 3: Example of CSIC Implementation and Operational Requirement