Environmental Management Case Study (ISO14001)

8/7/2019 Environmental Management Case Study (ISO14001)

1/18

Environmental Management Selected Case Studies 38

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

CASE STUDY 2

Case Studies on Implementation of ISO 14001 (clause 4.3.1) in Parquet and

Fiberboard Companies.

1.0 Introduction

Everyone recognizes the need for environmental protection. The environmental

problems have expanded from local, regional to global level. Resource consumption

poses serious threats to human health and to the stability of ecosystem.

Industry is one of the most important sources of environmental problem. This is due

to human society that depends heavily on industrial products to sustain their living

standard. Industrialization has contributed to the depletion of our air, water, and soil

quality. As a result, environmental regulations have been developed to control

emissions to air, water and land. In Malaysia for example, Environmental Quality Act

(EQA) 1974 has been introduced to control and minimized the environmental

problem caused by any person or organisation.

The increase in awareness among the public and organizations, has created a demand

to the development of standards, among those is the Environmental Management

System (EMS). They provide tools that can be applied to all parts, or any single part

of any organization in order to minimize the environmental impact from their

activities.

The standards in general are established to ensure sustainable development where

they provide guidance and methods for organisations to act in order to achieve a better

environmental performance.


2/18


2.0 Literature review

2.1 A brief history of ISO 14001

The term sustainable development has been introduced in 1987 by a report entitled

Our Common Future. The report has called industries to develop effective

environmental management system.

In 1989, the United Nations has decided to organize a conference known as the Earth

Summit. This has become the beginning of ISO involvement. The year after, ISO has

formally established a Strategic Advisory Group on the Environment (SAGE) to make

recommendations regarding international standards for the environment.

Thus in 1993, Technical committee 207 (TC) was establish to develop and produce

the standards proposed by SAGE and to investigate the possibility of developing more

related and supporting standards.

The first EMS was introduced April 1992. It is called BS 7750, which is published by

British Standards Institution. The introduction of this standard has draw interest of

many countries to develop an environmental managements system by adopting this

standard.

Due to consumer demand, for an internationally recognized EMS standard, ISO

14001 has been introduced in 1996 in Malaysia. Since its introduction, the demand for

certification against the standard is ever increasing.

2.2 ISO 14001- Environmental management system.

The management model adopted by ISO 14000 is from Deming model. Deming

model stressed that management should be carried out using cycle of Plan, Do, Check

and Act (Figure 2.1 and 2.2). The ISO 14001 environmental management system

specification is structured along these frameworks and as stated in ISO 14004 Guide

of Environmental Management System (EMS) is guided by the following principles:

Principle 1 - Commitment and policy

Principle 2 Planning


3/18


Principle 3 Implementation

Principle 4 Measurement and evaluation

Principle 5 Review and improvement

Figure 2.1 and 2.2: Deming Model and ISO14001 Main Principles


4/18


2.3 Potential Benefit on Implementing ISO 14001

ISO 14001 is an internationally recognized standard for environmental management

systems. Conformance to the standard may help the organisations to remain

competitive in the marketplace. For many organisations, the most influence factor for

them are that both, their competitors and customers, are seeking recognition and

beginning to demand conformance to ISO 14001 requirement.

By implementing an Environmental Management System (EMS) in accordance with

the ISO14000 standards the benefits includes:

Identifying areas for reduction in energy and other resource consumption,

Reducing environmental liability and risk,

Helping to maintain consistent compliance with legislative and regulatory

requirements,

Benefiting form regulatory incentives that reward companies showing

environmental leadership through certified compliance with an internationally

recognized EMS standard,

Preventing pollution and reducing waste,

Responding to pressure from customers and shareholders,

Improving community goodwill,

Profiting in the market for "green" products,

Respond to insurance company pressure for proof of good management before

pollution-incident coverage is issued,

And demonstrating commitment to high quality

2.4 Example of company with ISO 14001

2.4.1 Example 1

This company is an integrated wood industry company, located in Indonesia. At

present the company manages over 710,000 hectares of natural forest and 43,000

hectares of industrial timber plantations. The company also has two plywood

factories with 250,000m3 total production capacity per year and two Medium


5/18


Density Fiberboard (MDF) factories with a total production capacity of 200,000m3

per year. It exports over 85% of its product to more than 15 countries in 5 continents.

Plywood production consists of the following main processes:

Bucking

Gluing

Sanding

Peeling

Pressing

Finishing

Drying

Trimming

Reasons for action

The division realized that plywood production has environmental impacts, inter alia

forest preservation and air quality. To avoid negative environmental impacts from

production and secondary processes, management decided to implement ISO 14001.

Apart from that, ISO 14001 is also used to help the division formulate it policies and

objectives infulfilling legal requirement.

Programmes of environmental improvement were established and followed up by

training and campaigning in order to enhance awareness and care at all levels of

personnel. Procedures were documented to direct the implementation of the programs

in the field, which in turn were followed up by an internal environmental management

audit system.

The main expenses of the implementation of EMS-ISO 14001 involved consultation,

document preparation, external and internal training, campaigns on environmental

awareness and certification. The total cost of implementation was approximately

US$45,000 (not including investment costs).


6/18


Lessons Learnt

Implementation of ISO 14001 strengthened the company's commitment to

environmental and waste management.

Being ISO 140001 certified increased community support of the division'swork in its region.

2.4.2 Example 2: Copley Square Hotel

A prominent hotel created an aggressive environmental program that provides a

foundation for ISO 14001 registration. The hotel is an historic one with an upscale

clientele. Their aggressive approach to reducing their impact on the environment

helped them identify many ongoing benefits. The major benefit areas were: recycling,

energy use reduction, and water use reduction.

Energy Use Reduction

Install compact fluorescent bulbs in guest room table lamps and hanging lamps:

predicted payback equal to 1.81 years.

Install compact fluorescent bulbs in back areas, which are lit 24 hours: savings equal

to U$59.57 per bulb.

Remind employees to turn off all energy using devices that are not being used: no

estimate of savings.

Water Use Reduction:

Installing toilets with 1.5-gallon capacity, replacing ones with 3.5 gallon capacity

will save U$3,276 and 430,000 gallons annually.

Showerheads of greater efficiency will saveU$6,546 and 859,000 gallons annually.


7/18


Guest have been offered the option of reusing their towels and linens when staying

more than one night. Projected savings are $4,000 annually.

This case includes savings that are well known and some that are innovative. Some

of the reasons the program has been successful are:

Everyone in the hotel participates in the program and can contribute from within

their job responsibilities. Thus, the power of each individual to contribute in a

positive way is harnessed.

Small savings are as important as big ones. This recognizes that small savings add

up and creates a culture that values contributions at all levels of the organization and

of any size. The cumulative effect of many small acts of environmental impact

reduction may not be quantifiable, but it may be significant.

3.0 Malaysia Specific Case Studies

Today, a successful company needs to establish a reputation for quality, cost and good

delivery and also good quality of product and services while taken into account the

environmental aspects. Environmental credibility has becoming a factor in national

and international competitiveness. The market pressures also are calling for a better

understanding of the environmental cost and benefits of products and services.

Therefore, in this study, companies producing fiberboard and parquet have been

chosen as modules for implementing an Environmental Management System in order

to achieve certification of ISO 14001.

3.1 Case study 1

Company X was established in 1996 in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan and produce product

called parquet. It manufactures premium quality of parquet using solid wood from

Hevea plantation (rubber wood). But mostly the wood used in this company are PB

200/PB 300 series Hevea clones and others type of wood like oak, beech and hard

maple


8/18


This company has exported its product to Europe, Australia, Hong Kong, China,

South Korea, Japan, Ukraine and Russia. In Malaysia, the company is actively

promoting its factory finished parquet range both for residential and commercial

grades to developers, and individual house owners.

The main characteristics of their products (parquet) are:

Versatile

It can be used almost anywhere at house or office. It can also be applied to

walls as wall panels to transform the whole ambience of a dull familiar

looking room into a warm, elegant and luxurious. It also can be placed on

the ceiling to become unique and sophisticated then other man-made

materials.

Reliable

This engineered product is thoroughly reliable as the tongue and groove on

all four sides provides precision fittings. In addition the UV cured acrylic

lacquer, which is, solvent free, not only seals the natural beauty of the Top

Layer wood but also adds to its strength and wear resistance.

Safe

The wood used for flooring is treated with Borax/Boric acid and does not

contain PCP (pentachlorophenol). Together with the use of E-1 grade

adhesives (low formaldehyde emission) is a save product.

In order to obtain their quality standard, this company also followed some

specifications such as shown below in Table 1, which it has six types of species and

colour such as Hevea Natural, Hevea Stain, Hevea Rustic, Beech, Oak and Hard

Maple and nine standard specifications must be followed as below:


9/18


Table 3.1: Standard of specifications

Length 2200mm or 1200mm

Width 202mm

Thickness 14mm

Moisture content 8%+/-2%

Finish 5 coats of UV Acrylic lacquer

Structure of finish Fine texture

Materials used:

Top layer Species Hevea, Beech, Oak or Hard Maple

Core layer Species Hevea

Bottom layer Species Spruce, Pine or Hevea

3.2 Case study 2

A company producing fiberboard has been taken as a module for implementing an

Environmental Management System in order to achieve certification of ISO 14001.

The fiberboard is marketed globally to Europe, Middle East, Asia, Africa and North

America. This international trading of product has seen the need for this company to

have an international recognition to remain competitive in the market.

The fiberboard (medium density fiberboard) are made from rubber wood (Hevea

brasiliensis) obtain from the companies plantation area. The woods taken are from a

sustainable plantation area where this is one of the companies initiative of zero

burning and conservation of the environment. The production of fiberboard in this

company is fully automated to ensure accuracy and optimal efficiency. The fiberboard

produce is in the range of 2.5 mm to 32mm in thickness with various lengths and

widths to satisfy all kinds of applications.

The process starts from receiving raw log, cutting log into chips, washing, heating,

refine, and drying of chips, matforming from fiber, hot pressing, cutting, sanding,

cutting into desirable size until the last process of packaging.


10/18


The energy provided to produce steam and drying of the chips and fibers are produce

in an energy plant in the factory area itself. The fuel used is from waste materials of

the log bark and saw dust. This is an alternative way to reduce waste to be dispose

to the landfill.

3.3 Methodology

There is no standard technique or approach for determining significant impacts.

Strictly, ISO 14001 does not require use of any enumerated criteria in determining

significance. This way, each organization or company can apply any appropriate

criteria that are relevant to their activities, products, services or process in identifying

significant impacts.

3.3.1 Case study 1

For the first approached for processing of parquet, identification of aspect and impact

in every process of production starts from the arrival of raw material to the departure

of product from factory are made. Then, in identifying significant impact, a scoring

method has been used and the scores is classified according to the range of

significance as follow:

Very significant, V>45

Moderate, 20 44

Less significant, 5 19

Besides that, this method also consists of five criteria in order to assess the significant

environmental impacts. The key criteria are:

Scale of impact

Severity of impact

Duration of impact

Condition of impact

Legislation and regulation


11/18


Figure 3.1: Step of Identify Environmental Aspect and Impact

Preliminary Identify Environmental Aspect and Impact

In Parquet Processing

Using a scoring system and depends on the

Criteria that has been chosen

Make a priority referring to their scores

Divide them into three categorized

From very significant, moderate and less significant

ExamplesCalculation

Example on calculation:

Activity/Process: Planning (Top Layer) Cutting and clearing the sides of wood

Environmental Aspect: Produce of solid waste and saw dust (Planning Process)

Significant Environmental Impact: Air emission Priority: very significant


12/18


Example of description phase:

Scale of Impact

Score Description

1 On site only

3 Site vicinity, regional

5 Very large geographical region, global

impact

Total scores = Addition of every scores in each criteria X legislation score

Environmental Aspects and Impacts that comes under Very significant category.

No Aspects Significant Impact

PP03 Produce of solid waste and saw dust

(Planning Process)

Air emission

PP13 Emission of smoke (Boiler) Air emission

PP03 Produce of solid waste and saw dust

(Planning Process)

Occupational Safety and Health

risk

PP11 Probability to cause leakage

(Lacquering Process)


risk

PP09 Probability to cause incidents (Venier

Laying)


risk

PP06 Produce coarse and fine dust (Splitting

Process)

Air Emission

PP02 Generation of Noise during cutting

process (KALFASS Process)


risk

PP13 Emission of smoke (Boiler) Air emission

Conclusion

One of the most difficult and misunderstood elements in the ISO 14001 standards is

(Clause 4.3.1) Environmental Aspect and Impact. This also causes by no specific

method or approach can be used to identify. So, this research has presented a method


13/18


to identify and evaluate significance of environmental aspects and impacts to meet

ISO 14001 EMS requirements or improve an EMS. It was qualitative method. But,

there are some weaknesses of this method, which are:

Does not evaluate employees concern

Does not identify the corporate standards compliance status

Only consider environmental criteria not include business criteria

According to the identification aspect and impact, it is observed that there are some

issues of concern. The issues are:

Air emission

Noise pollution

Occupational and Safety risk

There are some difficulties faced which occurred during the research. The difficulties

are:

Lack of time to identify all element of an ISO 14001

Lack of information to identify aspects and evaluate impacts

No expertise with any method to identify environmental aspect and impact

Recommendations

Before trying to develop and implement an environmental management system, there

are some essential steps should be considered.

Define the scope of the EMS to be developed

Preliminary Criteria

Gap Analysis

Preliminary Plan

Project Management


14/18


In developing a method for identifying significant impacts, it is suggested that both

quantitative and qualitative methods should be incorporated into one. The quantitative

method will prioritize the impacts according to rankings system while the qualitative

method will give quick overview for what is significant.

3.3.2 Case study 2

Another method has also been introduced here for the next case study that is for the

production of fibreboard. The next method are introduced to give a different approach

and idea of how to bring out the documentation of implementing ISO 14001

especially in identifying environmental aspect and impact where this is the critical and

most important part in implementing ISO 14001.

This method also identifies aspect and impact in every processing line. However, in

this method, main issues of pollution are identified from the impact. In the production

of wood base product, the impacts identified are usually the same. Therefore, the main

impact issues identified in the processing line are:

- Air pollution

- Noise pollution

- Land pollution and waste disposal issue.

Here, every issue are managed differently using either quantitative or qualitative

method in identifying significant impact. The method chosen are based on the

availability of baseline data (e.g. dust emission monitoring, waste production data,

noise monitoring) and further baseline data that can be carried out by the company.

Significant air pollution impact are identified using a scoring method (quantitative)

with a risk index of 1- 45 and level of impact as shown below:

- Insignificant

- Tolerable

- Moderate

- Significant

- Most significant


15/18


In this method, more than five criteria are looked into compared to the first method.

Examples of criteria added are:

-Probability of occurrence

-Community concern

-Current control

-Awareness of workers

Example of discription phase in criteria is:

Probability of occurrence.

Scale Level of impact and description phase

1 Very unlikely to occur

5 Likely to occur during normal operation

7 Normal occurrence during operation

Scores from every criterion are added and are put in action according to the risk

index.

The significant impact of noise pollution, land pollution and waste disposal issues are

identified using qualitative method. Its significant is determined by the baseline data

obtain where the activity that causes the most impact to the environment are taken as

most significant. Another significant impact that has been identified indirectly from

the identification of impact of activity is health and safety of workers.

Overall significant impacts identified are:

Significant impact

Air pollution

Emission from chimney

Emission of dust from storage of energy plant

Dust emission from debarking in drum

Noise pollution

Noise from process line of production

Land pollution and waste disposal issue

Generation of excess wood base waste as burned material in energy plant


16/18


Disposal of fly ash

Safety and health of workers

In this second method, the legislation involved is determined separately compared to

the first method.

Conclusion

1. Air pollution issue

From air pollution issue, the characteristics taken to obtain significant impact are

taken from ISO 14004 Environmental Management Guideline and Specifications.

However, the categories inside every character are made based on this company

situations during processing activity. To have a better scoring method, this

company could add other categories such as financial availability, effect of impact

to image of the company, past history of accidents, potential nuisance and other

characteristics. In this study, these characters are not considered because it can only

be determine by the companys management. The scoring method also can be

better if the characters are more specific.

2. Noise pollution issue

This issue has to be looked into seriously because it exceeds the regulation limit.

It has been identified that the problem comes from the running machine.

According to regulation limit, the limit exposure to noise for workers working in

factory area is 90dB and they cannot be expose continuously for more than 8

hours (FMA). However in identifying significant activity in this issue, the only

data obtained as baseline to guide level of noise produce from this company is

boundary-monitoring data.

3. Land pollution and disposal of waste issue

This issue is not a big issue as air and noise pollution because in overall, it

complies with the regulation level. Activities that come under this issue are

properly disposed and some of it are reused and recycled. Generally, the company


17/18


has actually implement good environmental management practices especially in

reusing the waste produce.

4. Legal and other requirement

After identifying legal requirement involve in the processing line, the regulatory

involve are:

1. Factories and Machinery Act and Regulations (FMA), amendments up to

April 2001.

2. Environmental Quality Act and Regulations (EQA), amendments up to

February 2001

3. Occupational Health and Safety Act and Regulations (OSHA),

amendments up to January 2000

The identification aims to make sure that all legislation involve are complied by the

company. The lack of knowledge or understanding of any regulation does not absolve

an organization from the responsibility of complying with regulations. A lack of

compliance can seriously affect the financial well being of the organization and

individuals within the organization. Therefore, it is an important factor to make sure

that this factory looked into every detail of the legislation to avoid factor that will

affect profitability of the company.

3.4 Conclusion of main findings

4 main issues that has been identified from processes of fiberboard are:

1. Air pollution issue

2. Noise pollution issue

3. Land pollution and waste disposal issue

4. Health and safety issue

Most significant impact from each issue are also identified that is:

1. Dust problem

2. Noise which exceeds regulation limit

3. Reduction of excess waste

4. Creating awareness on health and safety to workers


18/18

E i t l M t S l t d C St di 55

Most significant identified impacts are from:

1. Emission of dust from chimney

2. Noise from production line machines

3. Generation of wood base waste

4. Generation of fly ash from energy plant

5. Safety and health of workers during work

3.5 Overall Conclusion

1. From both the method the most issue identified are air pollution and safety and

health. However, in the second method, there are other issues that comes under

significant impact which are, noise pollution, land pollution and waste disposal

issue.

2. In identifying significant impact, the more criteria added the better evaluation of

an activity could be done.

3. If baseline data are to be used, the baseline data must be of the latest and variety.

4. Both methods that have been introduced can be change depending on the

company itself. The main priority is to make sure that the company reduce their

environmental impacts and give a better environmental performance.

Documents

Environmental Management Case Study (ISO14001)