What Everyone Must Know About TOTAL QUALITY ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT DEFINITION

Total quality environmental management is one of the priorities on the agendas of the world. In the current competitive scenario, the commitment to the environment has become a highly relevant variable, there is a global pact to reduce the impact of pollutants such as greenhouse gases, and other variables, seeking to integrate non-harmful generation elements into production processes, through which the organizations plan, executes and controls certain activities related to the objectives that they want to achieve.

Total quality environmental management (TQEM by its acronym) is the process of implementing quality management standards and principles to those manufacturing processes and procedures that directly affect the quality of the environment.

The TQEM system is created to support the constant improvement of a company’s environmental performance. This process allows an organization to:

1. Identify its customers and various environmental groups,
2. Motivate the management and employees to work on enhancing the firm’s environmental performance, and
3. Get rid of potential environmental problems.

In 1992, GEMI (Global Environmental Management Initiative) introduced the business world to a management concept known as Total Quality Environmental Management (TQEM).

TQEM merges the principles of Total Quality Management, espoused by management guru Dr. W. Edwards Deming, and the goals of environmental management.

GEMI is committed to TQEM because it emphasizes the continuous improvement of a company’s environmental activities. As part of this commitment, GEMI provides guidance on, and serves as a forum for, TQEM ideas. 

In short, a management system is nothing more than a map or a guide that explains how the day-to-day of the company is managed: defining what is the organizational structure of the company, which are the key business processes and procedures with respect to the field to which the system in question refers (quality, environment, prevention of occupational risks, innovation, etc.) and who assumes the responsibilities of these processes and procedures.

On the other hand, the international norms or standards that establish the guidelines for implementing different management systems in an organization, are the result of normalization or standardization which could be defined, in a generic way, as the activity aimed at putting order in repetitive applications that are developed in the field of industry, technology, science and the economy.

The unprecedented success of the dissemination of ISO 9000 standards (2015 its fourth edition, which cancels 2005) has greatly facilitated the dissemination of other management system standards with a similar structure, but corresponding to different areas. So, it is in this order where the ISO 14000 environmental management standards have had a notable impact. It is a standard that specifies the requirements for the certification, registration and self-evaluation of a system of environmental management (EMS) in an organization, regardless of its size or activity. 

An integrated management system describes several management systems grouped together forming a single system, such as a combination of a quality management system (according to ISO 9001), an environmental management system (according to ISO 14001) and a health and safety management system (in accordance with current ISO 45001), which are ultimately the areas in which the adoption of standardized systems has proliferated the most and for which the reference standards used are most compatible.

The metrics and results to be pursued around the objectives set is the responsibility of the organizations, based on a management system such as those indicated following the principles of TQM.