Implementing EMS in Australian Agriculture Sector

This essay discusses the prominence of Environmental Management Systems (EMS) in elevating the operations of Australian agricultural sector. It explores the benefits of EMS in Australian agriculture sector and its impact on environmental process innovations. The essay draws insights from various research articles on EMS and its implementation in the agricultural sector.

Running head: IMPLEMENTING EMS IN AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURE SECTOR
IMPLEMENTING EMS IN AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURE SECTOR
Name of the Student:
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IMPLEMENTING EMS IN AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURE SECTOR
Introduction
Environmental Management Systems (EMS) is identified as effective methods of
improving environmental as well as economic performance of a sector. These methods have been
broadly embraced across wide ranging sectors and are further gaining substantial recognition in
agricultural industries. An EMS is further viewed as a procedure for successfully incorporating
environmental considerations, demands and requirements into regular management and
sustainable planning for farms (Lehmann & Joseph, 2015). Such a management strategy further
assesses a production system from its initial phase to concluding state ranging from inputs to
outputs. The EMS process has been developed for industrial domain and thus is commonplace in
manufacturing across the world. The most prominent system identified is ISO 14001 that
primarily involves third party certification as well as formal auditing. The research question of
the following essay is “prominence of Environmental Management Systems elevating the
operations of Australian agricultural sector.”
Discussion
As agricultural sectors have been expanding and undergoing high level of challenges
resulting to dependence on larger domain of employees, cultivators tend to exhibit a need of
highly methodical method of managing operations (Lehmann & Joseph, 2015). However while
official certification may not be essential, the EMS process and standards can facilitate farmers
to develop their environmental as well as economic performances. The association between EMS
and eco-innovation identifies its natural link in the standards and principles of continuous
development in performance which is viewed as one of the major aspects of EMS. Daddi et al.,
(2016) in the article on “Exploring the link between institutional pressures and environmental
management systems effectiveness: An empirical study” efficiently conducted a survey that

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included over 1200 EMAS services, whereby the major section reveal an assertive influence of
the EMS method in general on the process of environmental process innovations. The article has
further drawn perspectives of other scholars who assessed the impact of certain performance
variables related to EMS of agricultural enterprises operating in Malaysia. It has been observed
that some of the aspects tend to determine core strategic areas of competitiveness related to
market position and expenses (Daddi et al., 2016).
The fundamental aim of Cary & Roberts, (2011) paper rely on evaluating the degree of
productivity of government aided interventions which purposes the development of advanced
organization of land as well as water systems related to farming lands in Australia. The pro-
environment conduct of Australian cultivators has been intervened through chosen adoption of
administrative and industry sponsored EMS methods typically aided with financial incentives
and other additional benefits. The article mentions that data presented on accounted EMS activity
along with the knowledge of four chosen sections of cultivators in the regions of Victoria as well
as south-eastern region of Australia which correspond to broad-acre harvesting, meat and dairy
agricultural production. In the environmental sector, phosphorus serves a critical role to the
growth of plants, animals as well as industrial manufacture sector (Cary & Roberts, 2011). An
elevating tendency to utilize agricultural wastes or by-products as substrates has been
distinguished for the rise of phosphate biosorbents.
However in the paper entitled as “Modification of agricultural waste/by-products for
enhanced phosphate removal and recovery: Potential and obstacles” by Nguyen et al., (2014)it
has been observed that the critical insufficiency of anion binding sites that is natural AWBs are
typically inadequate in phosphate decontamination. This however has lead adaptation play a
fundamental function in enhancing phosphate sorption’s chattels of unrefined or unprocessed

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AWBs. In addition to this the comprehensive insights provided in the literature part of the paper
has explored certain processes and mechanisms of modification (Nguyen et al., 2014). It has
further been indicated that alterations in agricultural sector can elevate the capacity of phosphate
elimination of the agricultural wastes by efficiently preserving phosphate ion onto the adapted
AWBs largely through the process of ion exchange that is electro-static interaction as well as
ligand exchange mechanisms.
EMS competently assist firms to sustain the environmental impact of their functioning in
a proficient technique and further offer these organizations with appropriate arrangements,
mechanisms and funds for efficient execution of environmental policy, determine objectives and
leverage organizational performance. It has been considered from de Oliveira et al., (2017)
article on Cleaner Production practices that modern firms require to espouse developments in
their production process in order to exploit environmental actions. These actions however are
demanded by wide ranging stakeholders to attain ecological approval for their organizations.
Lewandowska’s paper has offered an inclusive discourse on the potentials of adopting
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in distinguishing and exploring the significant aspects of the
environment existing within EMS. The EMS process however relies to a great extent on the
fundamentals and Standards of the international ISO 14001 as well as on the European Union
EMAS regulation (de Oliveira et al., 2017). A preliminary investigation has been successfully
executed on over 30 enterprises that constitute the grievance list of EMS with the ISO 14001 or
EMAS regulation. The author’s critical emphasis on specific discrepancies between input and
output related environmental factors have been incorporated in major proportion of the analysed
registers. It has been observed that the potential explanations for such gaps have emerged from
the direct management of output related environmental factors by enterprises which are often

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leveraged by legal regulations (de Oliveira et al., 2017). At this juncture, Leung & Yang, (2012)
emphasis on clean and eco-friendly renewable power resource further known as wind energy
must be taken into consideration. This wind energy possess the potential to condense reliance on
fossil fuels which has attained considerable prominence in recent times. The relatively
reasonable expense of wind energy has been serving as a major energy source in the prospective
years (Leung & Yang, 2012). Studies indicate that the olive oil sector operating in several parts
of Australia have been emitting extensively pollutant solid waste as well as waste water which
has been severely impacting the environmental sustainability of the Australian agricultural
sector. El Hanandeh, (2015) in his paper published on the journal of cleaner production has
explored 5 vital alternate approaches for sustaining the waste production by employing life cycle
assessment mechanism. These important approaches involve manufacturing briquettes as solid
energy source for home heating, composting, pyrolysis along with pellets for water heating.
The paper has drawn significance on sensitivity evaluation approach which demonstrated
that the desired transition in the prospective Australian energy resource mix towards safe and
clean energy sources has fewer propensities to pose significant effect on the actions generated by
the alternate approaches (El Hanandeh, 2015). However alleviation of farming dispersive toxic
waste serves critical strategy barrier across the Europe region and certain regions pertaining in
the UK. Current combined regulatory and determined approaches relevant in the United
Kingdom persist to be ineffective to successfully generate the essential ecological results for the
range of rationalization which include abortive approach in achieving increased implementation
rates. Collins et al., (2016) evaluated through cultivators’ attitudinal survey that majority of
cultivators show immense receptiveness towards elevating adoption in depth prospective
resource production. The preferred category of farmers primarily constituted several economical

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IMPLEMENTING EMS IN AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURE SECTOR
or cost efficient approaches which has proposed that expenses will pertain to signify a major
selection criterion for most of the cultivator base (Collins et al., 2016). The article have analysed
around 29 on-farm techniques which have been mapped onto significant form types and import
that post the conjecture of over 90% up take to the domestic level multi contaminant modelling
structure in order to anticipate the methodically practicable effect on gross agriculture production
to air and water which have been integrated to the agricultural business (Collins et al., 2016).
Similar to Lewandowska's article, Notarnicola et al., (2017) claimed that Life Cycle
Thinking has been processed as a major idea for sustaining change towards highly sustainable
production as well as consumption techniques. LCA invest agricultural sectors have been
employed to evaluate agricultural mechanisms along with food processing as well as
manufacturing actions and further compare alternate options from “field to fork” and through the
means food waste management system (Notarnicola et al., 2017). Wild delving into his
comprehensive insights I have obtained the understanding of the value of numerous
methodological and analytical factors associated to LCA which ensure high level of assistance
towards effortless decision making procedure in both enterprise and policy evaluation domain.
This course has offered me with several journal articles on environmental sustainability however
the paper of (Leung & Yang, 2012) has provided when observed analysis of improve technical
expertise that can be used as important energy resource production for future environmental
resource usage.
The major strength of this paper lies on the understanding of wind energy and its present
situation of wind turbine growth in the Australian environmental industry. (Lewandowska,
2011)article has helped me to light on areas of LCA which serve as a significant mechanism for
the evaluation and assessment of environmental factors in the arena of EMS. By understanding

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the factors of cleaner production I have been able to understand the detailed awareness of EMS
and CP management procedure as an inclusive strategy for developing efficiency of resources.
Another benefit of reading El Hanandeh, (2015) paper on the Olive industry has helped
me to use my awareness on the process of waste utilisation which will potentially manufacture
pellets to generate domestic water heating as a highly relevant alternative strategy to deliver
effective environmental benefits. Collins paper ‘Tackling agricultural diffuse pollution: What
might uptake of farmer-preferred measures deliver for emissions to water and air?” in my
perspective could have developed a more comprehensive approach towards considering DTC
program in England whose aim was to emphasize on certain farming methods to water and air
quality problems. Nguyen's have helped me to foster my knowledge on phosphate removal
mechanism my father constraining phosphate ion onto already developed by products via
electrostatic form of interaction.
Conclusion
Successful EMS in Australian agricultural industry emphasizes on strategies through
which agricultural producers in diverse range of agribusiness sector employee EMS methods.
This method with its utmost resourcefulness and efficacy has been gradually attaining the
position of one of the most influential environmental management approach. Therefore from the
above discussion it can be concluded that employment of this type of environmental regulation
must be taken into account by State governments and administrative institutions to generate
effective results in the Australian agricultural industry.

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References
Cary, J., & Roberts, A. (2011). The limitations of environmental management systems in
Australian agriculture. Journal of Environmental Management, 92(3), 878-885.
Collins, A. L., Zhang, Y. S., Winter, M., Inman, A., Jones, J. I., Johnes, P. J., ... & Noble, L.
(2016). Tackling agricultural diffuse pollution: What might uptake of farmer-preferred
measures deliver for emissions to water and air?. Science of the Total Environment, 547,
269-281.
Daddi, T., Testa, F., Frey, M., & Iraldo, F. (2016). Exploring the link between institutional
pressures and environmental management systems effectiveness: an empirical
study. Journal of environmental management, 183, 647-656.
de Oliveira, J. A., Silva, D. A. L., Guardia, M., do Nascimento Gambi, L., de Oliveira, O. J., &
Ometto, A. R. (2017). How can Cleaner Production practices contribute to meet ISO
14001 requirements? Critical analysis from a survey with industrial companies. Clean
Technologies and Environmental Policy, 19(6), 1761-1774.
El Hanandeh, A. (2015). Energy recovery alternatives for the sustainable management of olive
oil industry waste in Australia: life cycle assessment. Journal of Cleaner Production, 91,
78-88.
Lehmann, J., & Joseph, S. (Eds.). (2015). Biochar for environmental management: science,
technology and implementation. Routledge.
Leung, D. Y., & Yang, Y. (2012). Wind energy development and its environmental impact: a
review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 16(1), 1031-1039.
Lewandowska, A. (2011). Environmental life cycle assessment as a tool for identification and
assessment of environmental aspects in environmental management systems (EMS) part

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IMPLEMENTING EMS IN AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURE SECTOR
1: methodology. The international journal of life cycle assessment, 16(2), 178-186.
Nguyen, T. A. H., Ngo, H. H., Guo, W. S., Zhang, J., Liang, S., Lee, D. J., ... & Bui, X. T.
(2014). Modification of agricultural waste/by-products for enhanced phosphate removal
and recovery: potential and obstacles. Bioresource technology, 169, 750-762.
Notarnicola, B., Sala, S., Anton, A., McLaren, S. J., Saouter, E., & Sonesson, U. (2017). The role
of life cycle assessment in supporting sustainable agri-food systems: A review of the
challenges. Journal of Cleaner Production, 140, 399-409.