Abeer Sajwani and Yasemin Nielsen
An Environmental Management System (EMS) manages the environmental aspects of the industrial sector by minimizing, controlling and mitigating the impacts of the industry. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a world leader in the aluminium industry has introduced EMS in its aluminium industrial sites to manage the environmental impact of this energy-intensive and environmentally challenging industry. This paper investigates the sustainability and environmental performance of the aluminium manufacturing and production process by analyzing the efficiency of the EMS in controlling the impact of the industrial processes on the environment. By analyzing gaps in implementation of EMS and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the framework already existing at the case study sites, this study proposes an efficient framework for implementing EMS for the context of aluminium industry in the UAE. The proposed EMS framework is validated qualitatively and quantitatively to ensure its applicability, efficiency and usefulness. The paper recommends linking environmental planning and management outputs for the aluminium industry through a life cycle approach