Reflective Log on Environmental Management for Sustainable Development

This reflective log details a student's exploration of environmental management for sustainable development, focusing on the oil and gas industry. The author reflects on the knowledge gained from a module, highlighting the importance of environmental accounting and the roles of government and oil companies in ensuring sustainable practices. The log identifies challenges, particularly environmental risks associated with oil exploration and extraction, such as oil spills and their impact on marine life. The student assesses stakeholders affected by these issues and discusses the importance of government policies in regulating the industry. The log concludes with a focus on the student's self-development and understanding of environmental management within the context of UK oil and gas companies, drawing on academic references to support the analysis.

Running head: ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
Environmental Management for Sustainable Development
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
Reflective log
Environmental management plan refers to the goal of identification of environmental
issues that affect the environment adversely. The environmental management plan is a strategy
that helps to mitigate the environmental issues that arise due to improper usage of natural
resources and devising plans that ensures sustainability of resources. The sustainable
management of the resources even includes the sustainable development of firms. After going
through the environment management for sustainable development module, it helped me to
identify the social and the environmental factors that are associated with the development of the
oil and gas industries and the elevated levels of utilization of the oil and gas products. The
module explains the means and ways of restricting the factors and reveals ways through which
the future developments can be made sustainably.
Firstly, the benefits that I have experienced from the environmental management for
sustainable development module are the knowledge that I have gained which contributes to the
sustainable development of the oil and the gas industries. Environmental accounting helps in
calculation of the probable depletion and estimation of the maintenance costs that are required
for the sustainable development of the oil and gas industries (Uno and Bartelmus 2013). While I
found this strategy helpful to calculate the oil and gas reserves through this knowledge
sustainable management plan can be developed. Furthermore, I gained an insight into certain
engagement that agovernment and an oil and gas exploration company must share their
responsibilities which ensures effective management and sustainable development. I found that
there are several international treaties, laws and conventions on the environment that govern the
offshore oil drilling operations. Along with the management plans and strategies, I found the
module depicting a clearer picture of the elevated usage of the oil and gas products. The

2ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
increased usage depends on the effective extraction of oil from its reserves, several modern
drilling and extraction, exploration techniques which make the procedure possible (Xuejun,
Jiaming and Xiaodong 2014).
Secondly, while studying the environmental management for sustainable development
module, the several challenges that I have encountered are none other than the challenges or the
risks that the environment faces from the improper exploration, extraction of oil and gas from its
reserves. To identify the negative impacts on the environment, it was important to identify the
stakeholders that are facing the issues. The stakeholders according to me are the people, the
workers that work in the oil and gas industries and the surrounding environment of the industries
(Merrow 2012). After identifying the stakeholders, it became easy for to designate the
environmental risks and the probable effects on the people. One major issue that I identified is
the oil spill into the oceans, that occurred due to leakage during the oil exploration. Such
accidents cause catastrophic outcomes, ranging from the microscopic planktons to macroscopic
aquatic organisms all get affected. The oil that sets superficially on to the surface of the ocean
water hinders the diffusion of oxygen rendering the aquatic organisms devoid of the dissolved
oxygen (Fingas 2016).
The focus of the reflective log was to assess the self-development through which I gained
knowledge of environment management. The activities that I undertook are concerned with the
oil and gas companies in UK. I was able to assess the government policies and that plays a major
role in governing the oil and gas companies.

3ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
References
Fingas, M., 2016. Oil spill science and technology. Gulf professional publishing.
Merrow, E.W., 2012. Oil and gas industry megaprojects: Our recent track record. Oil and Gas
Facilities, 1(02), pp.38-42.
Uno, K. and Bartelmus, P. eds., 2013. Environmental accounting in theory and practice (Vol.
11). Springer Science & Business Media.
Xuejun, W., Jiaming, C. and Xiaodong, W., 2014. The current status and development trend of
geophysical technology for oil and gas exploration. China Petroleum Exploration, 19(4), pp.30-
42.