One of the criticisms of Environmental Management Systems (eg ISO14001) is their reliance on mere continual improvement of environmental performance. It has always surprised me that environmental management has not pinched more ideas from its big brother, quality management.

The Total Quality Management (TQM) movement was conceived in the USA in the 50s but took off in Japan, where it has been credited with turning the phrase ‘made in Japan’ from shorthand for cheap tatty products into a badge of prestige. The motor industry in particular took it up with a vengance and ended the dominance of US and European models in the global market, until the West started adopting the same techniques.

TQM has two types of change:

• Kaikaku – big radical changes that align the whole system to deliver quality products.

• Kaizen – continual, incremental improvements within that system to squeeze the best performance out of it.

Kaikaku can be considered as ‘doing the right thing’ and Kaizen as ‘doing things right’.

I strongly believe that industry should adopt a similar model for environment performance – big radical changes (like sustainable product development, adopting cleaner manufacturing processes or shifting to product-service systems) should be complemented with basic waste minimisation and energy efficiency techniques. If the success of TQM could be replicated in environmental management, we’d be a long way down the road to sustainability.