Análise das ações ambientais na Universidade Federal de Pelotas

Abstract

The different activities developed in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are the cause of the pressures exerted by society and the government, so that they improve their environmental performance. Such activities can cause significant environmental impacts, and may have dimensions equivalent to a medium-sized city, producing considerable amounts of waste. In view of this problem, it is questioned whether the Federal University of Pelotas, which implemented its environmental management body in the year 2005, has advanced in terms of sustainability, mainly regarding solid waste management. In this sense, the objective of this research was to evaluate the implementation of an Environmental Management System (SGA) according to the ISO 14001 norm and verify the Granger causality relationship between the volume of waste collected from groups A, B and E and the number of students at the Federal University of Pelotas - RS. For that, the methodology used was the documentary analysis. The results demonstrate that for the implementation of the EMS based on ISO 14001, several requirements must be met by the HEI starting with the elaboration of the Environmental Policy, also recommending the definition of environmental objectives and goals together with an execution schedule and designation of responsible for achieve such proposals. Regarding the study of the volume of residues of groups A, B and E collected, this did not show a causal relationship with the number of students, for the units analyzed and the period studied.