Environmental management systems implementation

All organisations make some contribution to the degradation of the environment through their use of resources and production of waste. Environmental management systems (EMS) standards can provide a tool for companies to systematically reduce their environmental impacts. ISO 14001 was published in 1996. This fitted in with plans of the case study company to take proactive action in this area, even though there was no legislative requirement for them to do so. As EMS implementation was a new area at the time, appropriate methodologies were developed to address different aspects of the implementation, and ISO 14001 was successfully implemented in the company. The results of the primary research included: ♦ Drawing up a methodology for identifying and interpreting the environmental legislation that may have an impact on the organisation and compiling a register of such regulations. ♦ Developing a robust methodology for assessing significant environmental aspects and impacts and applying this to the software company. ♦ Establishing objectives and targets for those aspects identified as significant and implementing environmental management programmes to meet these. ♦ Developing an internal environmental audit procedure based on auditing against the significant aspects. ♦ Integrating areas of the EMS with the existing quality management system in order to avoid duplication of effort. ♦ Undergoing an external assessment process in order to achieve certification of the system. The thesis concludes that the systematic approach defined in ISO 14001 provided a mechanism that the organisation was able to adopt to bring about improvement in its environmental performance. The system was based on a thorough evaluation of the organisation's significant environmental aspects in order to bring about a reduction in its negative impacts. The ISO 14001 requirement for continual improvement is the key driver of the system, and this is what differentiates it from ISO 9000.

Age, growth and population dynamics of lemon sole Microstomus kitt (Walbaum 1792) sampled off the West Coast of Ireland

The age, growth, maturity and population dynamics of lemon sole (Microstomus kitt), captured off the west coast of Ireland (ICES division Vllb), were determined for the period November 2000 to February 2002. The maximum age recorded was 14 years. Males of the population were dominated by 4 year olds, while females were dominated by 5 year olds. Females dominated the sex ratio in the overall sample, each month sampled, at each age and from 22cm in total length onwards (when N > 20). Possible reasons for the dominance of females in the sex ratio are discussed. Three models were used to obtain the parameters of the von Bertalanfly growth equation. These were the Ford-Walford plot (Beverton and Holt 1957), the Gulland and Holt plot (1959) and the Rafail (1973) method. Results of the fitted von Bertalanffy growth curves showed that female lemon sole o f f the west coast of Ireland grew faster than males and attained a greater size. Male and female lemon sole mature from 2 years of age onwards. There is evidence in the population o f a smaller asymptotic length (L«, = 34.47cm), faster growth rate (K = 0.1955) and younger age at first maturity, all of which are indicative o f a decrease in population size, when present results are compared to data collected in the same area 22 years earlier. Results of the yield per recruit curve indicate that lemon sole are currently being over-fished o f f the west coast of Ireland. Problems of selectivity within the sampling method, particularly at the discarding stage, may have influenced the outcome of results of the models used in the assessment of this stock. Therefore, additional/future work on this species should include catch data which incorporates discards and not landings data alone.