Development of the environmental management system that has been implemented in the Nordic Council of Ministers' Office in Estonia began in October 2011. The system allows us to monitor and measure the impact on the environment of our activities and, where possible, to reduce and/or compensate for it – and we've already seen that our modest little office has both a direct and indirect impact on the world around us.
The management system currently in place in the organisation, which is a non-formal one based on EMAS requirements, enables environmental activities to be systematically integrated with its primary and support activities. The environmental principles and objectives of the office are set out in the environmental policy, which obliges us to:
- prevent, on an ongoing basis, the generation of pollution;
- reduce the environmental impact of our activities;
- observe environmental laws and other relevant regulations;
- review (and where necessary revise) the environmental objectives and duties of the organisation at least once a year; and
- implement the agreed environmental activities and record and archive documents related to environmental management.
Based on the office's environmental policy and the key environmental aspects of our activities, we have set ourselves specific targets and developed an action plan.
This year and next we will be focussing on the following aspects of the environment:
- reducing the amount of waste we produce and promoting recycling;
- reducing the amount of electricity we use and thus its impact on the environment;
- preventing accidents, reducing risks and generally making the working environment safer; and
- reducing the environmental burden of business trips and other business travel or compensating for the negative impact of such travel.
So far, we have started measuring the amount of electricity we use in the office; we are taking part in the 'Green Programme' sustainable development project of the NGO Ökomeedia; we brought a water-themed poster exhibition to Estonia this summer based on works submitted to the pan-European 'Drop by Drop' print advertising competition organised by the UN and promoting sustainable use of water; and we continue to organise the 'Rohevik' environmental forum.
You can read about all this and more in our environmental policy document here.
