Implementing Environmental Management

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Contents

Introduction        

ISO 14000        

ISO 9000        

Challenges to Implementation        

ISO 14000        

ISO 9000        

Benefits to Follow        

ISO 14000        

ISO 9000        

Conclusion        

References        

Introduction

The following essay is going to examine a major environmental standard system and a quality standard system. The two systems in question are ISO 14000 and ISO 9000. In the past few decades, there has been a major influx with the standardisation of processes in regards to economic operations. This is due to the push of globalisation merging economies experienced in occidental culture (Mendal, 2001).  

Standardisation is the act of pushing out uneconomical multiplicity of resources, in a pursuit of more interchangeability. This would in turn lead to greater mass production and efficiencies in the break down processes such as recycling (Dale, 2002)

This Essay is going to examine problems of implementation of these processes, and the benefits successful implementation can bring.

ISO 14000

ISO 14000 is a list of requirements for environmental performance. It is in fact a framework for organisations to set up their own environmental management system. The ISO 14000 certification shows a company has in place the systems described to measure and adhere to the standards, but Is not a guarantee for actual environmental improvement (Klaver, 1998)  

Over the past couple of decades, organisations have been implementing these systems to combat the growing concerns with environmental issues. There is also the added benefit of cost savings from resource efficiencies.  

ISO 9000

Much like ISO 14000, ISO 9000 is concerned with the processes of production rather than the final product. ISO 9000 deals with the fundamental concepts of the quality management systems (Tsim, 2002). ISO 9000 is typically implemented in the following stages: Plan, Do, Check, Act, Improve (Nanda, 2005). The improve stage, also known as continuous improvement, is where the maintaining of the standard takes place. ISO 9000 is designed to be usable by organisations of all size and in most sectors to be able to operate with total quality management systems.

Challenges to Implementation

There are many challenges associated to implementation, as well as many real world examples where it has simply not been successful. A lot of these factors are very situational, and the context of case studies matters greatly.

ISO 14000

The challenges for implementations differ greatly between organisations and sectors. Based on much literature (Goodchild, 1998; Bansal & Hunter, 2003; Hillary, 1998) for SME’s, one of the biggest problems are finance, particularly the cost of certification, but also proper consultation regarding implementation. This can cause particular problems depending on a manager’s perception of ISO 14000, due to its voluntary nature. Unless pressure to adopt is applied, managers of SME’s have little incentive to adopt from a cost based point of view, as there is no guarantee of a return on investment, or may be too long-term for a small company. Goodchild (1998) also pointed out that in many SME’s, the perceived benefits of gaining certification were not experienced in the initial short term. This created hindrance in many firms, and could lower the perception of benefits regarding implementing the standards for other firms.

There are two main costs to consider:

1. Costs to implement
2. Costs to maintain

The implementation costs include planning, training, identifying, and developing plans. The Maintenance costs involve the monitoring and reviewing of the processes once in place.

Looking back at SME’s, these costs can create a difficulty to compete. For suppliers, the short term increase in costs could put a firm at a heavy disadvantage, especially for instance against cheap suppliers in countries not as concerned about their environmental outputs.

ISO 9000

Much like ISO 14000, a major resistor to implementing ISO 9000 is cost (Clifford, 2005). ISO 9000 has been criticised to having a lot of admin work, and that the burdens and documentation are “excessive and inefficient” (Dalgleish, 2003).

Some authors suggest that many organisations already document their quality systems, and that the documentation has already been done. It has been suggested that because of this, ISO changes inspection to a procedure to a broader standard, and thus quality in an individual firm may not improve or could slip (Wilson, 2010).

Many authors put the major two success factors down to upper management commitment and employee involvement. It is therefore crucial that the communication channels between these parties is open with full clarity. Breakdown in communication can lead to failure in implementation, and just increasing the costs.

Companies worried about image may be damaged from a failure of a certification process (Sroufe, 2008). This could deter a firm that is under the public eye when the certification is not fully needed.

Many authors talk of how firms fail to monitor their own quality checks, as they assume certification means a guarantee of quality. This is partly due with ISO potentially promoting control and procedure, rather than really understanding improvement (Seddon, 2000)

Whereas quality has a proven track record for having a positive impact on competitive advantage, sales growth and market hold; a quality approach is not related to the registration of ISO 9000, and that the standards can simply be implemented without needing certification (Dalgleish, 2003). This makes the costs of certification very undesirable.