Page 16 - GreenMaster Winter 2023

Planning
Management Review
The Planning Principle chart
• Monitor our performance with respect to the environment, by periodically reviewing our practices, procedures and objectives;
• Train our employees and contractors to incorporate our Environmental Management System in all applicable aspects of our operations;
•Communicate our environmental performance to our directors, employees, contractors and guests; and
• Review our Environmental Management System on a regular basis to continually improve our performance.
THE PLANNING PRINCIPLE
In order to have an effective EMS a Planning Principle should be applied with a goal of continual improvement. We have used the Plan-Do-Check-Act principle and it works well. In fact, I find myself referring to this principle when thinking of items outside of the environment, such as Health & Safety and course quality.
List your potential emergency situations and what the causes or hazards could be. For example, hazardous material spills, infrastructure failures, and one very near and dear to
Aspect is the creek. Impact is the dirty water from construction upstream.
16 • CGSA • GreenMaster
Continual Improvement
Operation
Performance Evaluation
me, wildfires. Create procedures and train staff to deal with these emergencies (Plan). Practice with drills and record these so you’re ready in case a situation arises (Do). Review how the drill went and record deficiencies (Check). Make changes to procedures if required and you’ll be ready in the event of an emergency (Act).
1. Plan
Identify your environmental aspects and what potential impacts could occur. Aspects are those elements associated with activities and/or products that interact with the environment, can be controlled, and can be influenced. Impacts are consequences that can occur causing damage to an environment. In our case, we have broken it into operational areas to identify each aspect, listed the possible impacts and determined which may be more significant based on a risk assessment. The golf course proper, not including F&B, Pro Shop, Maintenance Shop, etc. looks like the chart below.
Operational Area / Activity
Aspect
Impacts
Golf Course Water / Riparian Waste
Hazardous Material Management
Monitoring
Fuel and Oil Handling
Maintenance Operations
➢ Habitat loss
➢ Reduced air quality
➢ Soil erosion / degradation ➢ Displaced wildlife
➢ Damage to fish spawning ➢ Disturbed riparian zones ➢ Reduced water quality
➢ Waste generation
➢ Non-comformances
➢ Non-compliances
➢ CO2 emissions