Course details
Units available for study are as follows:
- Integrated Environmental Management Core Module (certified by the IEMA)
- Environmental Impact Assessment
- Environmental Audit
- Cost Benefit Analysis
- Life Cycle Assessment
- Clean Technology 1 (Waste Minimisation and Design for the Environment)
- Environmental Risk Management
- Energy Management
- Clean Technology 2 (Clean Process Design)
- Sustainable Development
Students studying our distance learning modules may also attend our residential schools to deepen their understanding and hear from expert practitioners.
Integrated Environmental Management Core Module (IEMA Associate Membership Course)
This unit gives an in-depth understanding of environmental management and its application. It will enable you to:
- Plan an Environmental Management System (EMS) and develop an environmental policy
- Carry out an environmental review and develop an effective environmental programme
- Implement an EMS
- Carry out an EMS audit and management review
- Understand the role of environmental legislation in environmental protection
- Respond to the environmental challenge in your organisation
- Understand the role of strategic management tools in environmental management.
Environmental Impact Assessment
EIA is the means by which an organisation can predict, control and mitigate its impacts on the environment. This unit considers EIA in its legal and voluntary context. You will cover when and how to carry out an effective EIA, and what an EIA should include. Also covered is the role of the general public and all other consultees in the EIA process. In addition, you will develop a clear understanding of how EIA is implemented and practised in other countries.
Environmental Audit
This unit will help you gain an understanding of the audit process, enabling you to systematically monitor an organisation's levels of performance and activity, measuring them against legal and other standards by site, company and group. In addition you will develop an overview of how environmental auditing enables a company not only to examine its current operations and their environmental impacts, but also how it can help to identify future trends and to exploit them effectively. Current European and UK legal aspects of EA are also covered in some depth.
Cost Benefit Analysis
In this unit you will be introduced to environmental cost benefit analysis, beginning with traditional financial project appraisal. You will then consider the economic concepts central to cost benefit analysis and the main techniques that assign value to environmental impacts. You will also consider procedures for project selection. By the end of the unit you should be able to undertake an environmental CBA and report the results.
Life Cycle Assessment
The LCA unit examines the advantages to an organisation of considering the life-cycle of their products or processes with a view to the introduction of environmental improvements. The technical framework of an LCA is outlined comprising of four separate but interrelated components: goal definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation. You will focus on the process of quantifying energy and raw material requirements and environmental releases throughout the life cycle of a product or activity. You will also examine the quantitative and/or qualitative process of assessing the environmental implications of data generated in the inventory component.
Clean Technology 1 - Waste Minimisation and Design for the Environment
In this unit current and best practices are examined in the methodologies of clean technology as it applies to waste minimisation, pollution prevention, cleaner production, cleaner processing, design for the environment and recycling. You will explore the origins and problems associated with the generation of waste and pollution and look at the legal aspects of the problem. Also covered are basic project procedures including technical and economic assessments and the ranking of projects. These procedures are applied to the design of products for the benefits of environmental performance and business performance.
Environmental Risk Management
This unit introduces a range of approaches to risk assessment and management as they apply at policy level, at the level of individual organisations, and to specific processes and substances. Outlining the role of risk management and assessment in environmental management systems, you will gain an understanding of how risk assessment and management methods are employed in Environmenta Impact Assessment, Cost Benefit Analysis and Environmental Audit. You will also examine in detail the various analytical techniques that can be used to assess risk, and the role that these techniques play in managing risk.
Energy Management
In this unit you will explore how your company can balance the two objectives involved in energy management: saving energy and money, and reducing environmental pollution. You will examine the fundamental concepts of energy management and analysis in the context of the current dilemma over energy resources, worldwide energy utilisation patterns, and scenarios for the future. Also included is the assessment of the role of an energy audit, techniques for effective project planning and review the efficient technologies of energy utilisation. Finally, you will gain an understanding of how to optimise energy management investments in terms of investment decision criteria and business objectives.
Clean Technology 2 - Process Design
This unit covers the design of processes in which products are manufactured and recycled. Techniques and procedures for assessing the generation of waste and pollution are explored. You will also carry out material and energy balances on processes that include recycling and chemical reaction, apply a range of tools to formulate solutions to environmental problems created in the design and operation processes, and examine renewable energy technologies as well as clean technologies for fossil fuel use.
Sustainable Development
This unit introduces students to the evolution of thinking and policy about sustainable development, recognising the diversity of perspectives and opinions which are relevant to the subject. With this understanding, students are guided in how they can interpret and apply sustainable development principles in the course of their work.
The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is developed to show what organisations can do to improve their environmental and social performance in ways which are complimentary to their own aims and their obligations to others. The use of metrics and reporting as part of a wider engagement with stakeholders, compliance with standards and guidelines, and the promotion of appropriate organisational culture all contribute to an effective and socially responsible organisation.
Read the first section of the learning materials that explains what sustainable development means (pdf format 760 kB)
Read about the commendation of the course in a 2008 award.