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The World Trade Organization (WTO) Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) has brought environmental and sustainable development issues into the mainstream of WTO work.
IMPLEMENTING AN ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM THROUGH ISO 14001: A CASE STUDY AT LEVER VIETNAM, HANOI BRANCH by Le Thang Long A research study submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration Examination Committee Dr Fredric W Swierczek (Chairperson) Dr Barbara Igel Dr Arne Deussen Nationality Previous Degree Vietnamese Bachelor of Economics National Economics University Hanoi, Vietnam Scholarship donor Government of Switzerland Asian Institute of Technology School of Management Bangkok, Thailand April 2001 ii Acknowledgement The author expresses his deep gratitude to his advisor, Dr Fredric Swierczek, for his visionary advice and comments that help complete this research study Sincere thanks are extended to Dr Barbara Igel, who has given critical suggestions for a better structure of the recommendations of the research The author would like to thank SAV Program, whose funding made his study at AIT possible Warmest love is dedicated to his father, who has been a guiding light and extended endless encouragement for him to pursue his interest in environmental management The author extends his special thanks to Dr Nguyen The Chinh and Mr Dinh Van Tru for their assistance in collecting information and ideas in establishing the research framework Mr Mai Duc Lam also spent his valuable time to provide information for this research study i Abstract Environmental management has recently emerged as a competitive edge in the international market Vietnamese companies can no longer ignore this phenomenon in the way joining the world business community However, they are far behind world level practice in environmental management and now pacing to catch up with their rivals in advanced countries ISO 1400 standards series developed by the International Organization for Standardization is widely acknowledged as a solution for business entities based in developing countries to compete equally in the world market in terms of environmental management Vietnamese enterprises are now paying more attention to environmental management and, thus, considering the option of implementing ISO 14000 This research aims at discovering the practice of ISO 14000 standards series in a Vietnamese facility: Lever Vietnam, Hanoi Branch The author wants to analyze the practice of building an Environmental Management System through a standard of the ISO 14000 series, ISO 14001 namely “Environmental Management System specification” Base on the analysis the research study draws the lessons for implementing ISO 14001 at the facility and suggests recommendations to improve the EMS of the facility ii Table of Content ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I ABSTRACT II TABLE OF CONTENT III LIST OF FIGURES IV LIST OF TABLES .V CHAPTER INTRODUCTION .1 I BACKGROUND II PROBLEM STATEMENT III RESEARCH OBJECTIVES IV RESEARCH METHODOLOGY V SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS VI PLAN OF THE RESEARCH .3 VII PRESENTATION OF THE RESEARCH .3 CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW I ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT II ISO 14000 STANDARDS SERIES AND THE PROSPECTS OF EMS .7 CHAPTER 19 IMPLEMENTING ISO 14001 AT LV HANOI 19 I CURRENT VIETNAMESE LAWS AND REGULATIONS ON ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 19 II SOCIAL TRENDS AND PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF ENVIRONMENTAL PERFECTION .22 III COMPANY PROFILE 22 IV ISO 14001 AT THE FACILITY .24 V DIFFICULTIES IN IMPLEMENTING ISO 14000 AT LV HANOI 42 CHAPTER 48 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 48 I CONCLUSIONS 48 II RECOMMENDATIONS .49 BIBLIOGRAPHY .54 iii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Title Page 2.1 Environmental Management System Loops 2.2 ISO 14000 standards series 3.1 Procedure for identifying significant environmental aspects at LV Hanoi 24 3.2 Environmental Management structure at LV Hanoi 29 3.3 Environmental communication hierarchy at LV Hanoi 32 3.4 Procedure for document control at LV Hanoi 34 iv LIST OF TABLES Table Title Page 2.1 ISO 14000 standards series 10 2.2 Comparison of EMS standards 14 3.1 Capital contribution of Lever Vietnam 21 3.2 Operational control over significant environmental aspects at LV Hanoi 36 v Chapter Introduction I Background The World Trade Organization (WTO) Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) has brought environmental and sustainable development issues into the mainstream of WTO work The Committee's first Report, which was submitted to the WTO Ministerial Conference in Singapore in 1998, notes that the WTO is interested in building a constructive relationship between trade and environmental concerns On the way joining WTO, Vietnam will soon take environmental protection into serious concern and environmental issues can no longer be ignored from business consideration Historically, environmental management in corporations and small companies alike has not been included in the “inner circle” of senior management Many organizations placed environmental management on the back burner until compliance issues arose or contamination was found on the property When those instances occurred, senior management suddenly gained an intense interest in the subject Today, many organizations are beginning to think beyond environmental compliance towards environmental performance Access to vital information about the compliance status of a company, how many pounds are emitted or who is responsible, can easily be accessed over the Internet This leads to an unprecedented awareness by the public of whether an organization has a positive or negative impact on the environment Those who are responsible for the bottom line of a company are also beginning to recognize that a well-designed Environmental Management System (EMS) can have a profound impact on a company This impact not only extends to the short-term bottom line and public image, but also to the long-term financial health of a company At this time an EMS that has been certified to the internationally recognized International Organization for Standardization’s ISO 14001 Standard is considered the state of the art in environmental management Businesses are increasingly adopting the global environmental management system, ISO 14001, in order to more effectively and efficiently manage their environmental impacts This voluntary system, as well as all EMSs, has the potential to provide facilities with a structure to minimize their environmental impact, ensure compliance with environmental laws and regulations, and address wasteful uses of natural resources For these reasons, EMS may greatly affect the environmental performance of facilities that adopt them and subsequently impact their financial performance, as well Only recently could organizations have their EMS certified, as the final version of the international EMS standard was published in late 1996 Since then, over 10,000 facilities around the world have had their EMS certified (Gallagher et al., 1999) While businesses are increasingly adopting these systems to better manage their environmental impacts, little is known about the potential these systems have for environmental protection, social welfare, and future public policy In Vietnam, ISO14001 is still considered among entrepreneurs as a source of expense or obligation, and the adoption of this standard is limited within a small number of companies, mostly foreign-invested enterprises This leads to a bitter fact that most Vietnamese companies may not be able to comply with international regulations and standards when they go competing globally thus hindering their entrance into world market II Problem statement Companies doing their business in Vietnam are now bearing potential risk of losing their ground due to poor environmental performance A complete and effective Environmental Management System is now crucially important for every business entity to proactively deal with the new business environment at the time being There are numerous types of EMSs among which, the ISO 14001 EMS has emerged as the most widely accepted international standard for environmental management and has the potential to harmonize EMS worldwide When EMS is certified with ISO14001 standard, a company can reach farther than compliance with regulations since they are able to rely on environmental management to differentiate themselves from competitors The business Lever Vietnam is doing belongs to chemical industry, which has been identified as one of the most potential source threatening the living environment of the society Furthermore, the company’s market is consumer goods, cosmetics for exact, and this product category requires high standards on industrial sanity and safety Managing environmental performance becomes a vital task to keep the company alive in this competitive business environment Therefore, it is worth looking at the practice of implementing ISO 14000 at Lever Vietnam to study why and how a Vietnamese facility uses ISO 14001 as an essential tool to strengthen its EMS III Research objectives • To evaluate the current Environmental Management System at the facility; • To identify the main benefits of and obstacles to implementing ISO 14001 standards at the facility; • To suggest recommendations to the facility about strengthening the current EMS with ISO 14001 standard series IV Research methodology IV.1 Primary information: • Interview with management board of the facility to study the current EMS • Interview with officials from Office for Standardization, Metrology and Quality Control for overall perception about the current practice of implementing ISO14000 in Vietnam IV.2 Secondary information: • Books, journals, magazines, newspapers • Company releases • Government regulations, guidance and other documents V Scope and limitations V.1 Scope: This piece of research only focuses on EMS at the firm level, it does not intend to assess the possibility and prospects of implementing ISO14001 at the industry or the nation level The research also implies an in-depth analysis of possibility but not a feasible study for implementing ISO14001 standards at the company Instead, this case study is an investigation of the practice of implementing ISO 14001 at Lever Vietnam Hanoi Branch (hereinafter is referred to as LV Hanoi), located at Nguyen Trai Road, Thuong Dinh, Thanh Xuan, Hanoi V.2 Limitations: It might be difficult to reveal much primary information from the company The legal system for environmental control in Vietnam has not been built to such an effective level that can standardize the environmental records for many kinds of company The company chosen may not have recorded a sufficient database for its EMS and is, thus, unable to give out much detailed information VI Plan of the research The time plan of the research can be divided into five stages: • Literature review • Data collection • Data analysis and recommendation • Completing research report • Presentation of results VII Presentation of the research Chapter 1: Introduction This part presents the rationale of the research, research methodology, background and statement of the research problem, objectives, scopes and limitation of the study Chapter2: Literature review This part reviews the definition of an EMS and its importance to sustainable development The role of EMS in the modern business competition and how ISO14000 standards can be used in building an effective EMS for a facility will be discussed Basic concepts and viewpoints based on which the research is conducted will be justified in this chapter Also at the focus are the general principles and benefits when implementing ISO14000 into a firm Chapter3: Implementing ISO14001 at the facility facility’s environmental policy, but insights and evaluations are essential to build up an overview for an improvement in the future The facility’s top management is open to every change and proposes from functional managers to consider for its reality In the latest Management Review session, conducted on January 12, 2001, the facility’s top management has reviewed the 2000’s Environmental Objectives and Targets and Environmental Management Program Many indicators for environmental performance have been evaluated and the management recorded a satisfactory level of improvement However, enzyme dust in the Detergent Manufacturing Plant rose above the facility’s standard and the cause was investigated later as raw materials were unloaded next to the plant’s windows Corrective actions are taken immediately as raw materials will be unloaded at another site far from the plant However, environmental management practice at LV Hanoi is measured merely by environmental performance, which indicates the noise level, kilograms of wastepaper saved or solid waste reduction percentage No financial and economic indicator has been set to track the performance of environmental management in terms of money Mr Mai Duc Lam explained that the facility has not focused attention to measuring financial impacts of the facility-wide environmental management practice but monetary benefits from several improvements have been recorded For example, continuous improvements on water use and paper saving accomplished by PELE group in December 2000 brought an estimated save of around 18 mil VND per year There is a cost/benefit analysis for the improvements accomplished to prove the advantages of these continuous improvements But these benefits were recorded item by item, the facility does not have an accounting procedure to clarify and total all environmental benefits From all of the above, there rises a serious question: Does the top management understand fully what are environmental objectives and targets? As clearly defined in the ISO 14001 standards, environmental objectives and targets are to improve the facility’s EMS, not environmental performance What they have looked at is mostly environmental performance and this is not what the standards require The facility may know the requirements very well, but it seems that they could not develop an effective framework or parameters to measure the progress or improvement of the EMS In fact, all the requirements in the ISO 14001 are very general and flexible for a wide range of organizations, different by nature and scale, to adapt It is difficult to set up parameters to measure a seemingly tangible concept like improvement of the EMS, but it is not impossible The problem here, supposedly, is that the facility hides away from the difficulties of building a comprehensive framework and parameters, and use environmental performance as parameters instead Improvements in environmental performance are always more appealing to stakeholders and the public perception, but it does not prove the progress in the EMS itself Sustainable development is not merely to save natural resources, nor improved environmental performance but the way to achieve those improvements for a long term vision V Difficulties in implementing ISO 14000 at LV Hanoi There are both internal and external factors that have caused the facility difficulties in the way of implementing ISO 14001 42 V.1 V.1.1 External difficulties Social perception and market consideration Vietnam is still a less developed country and so is its society’s perception about environmental issues Business entities are now lacking appropriate perception about environmental management and, thus, hesitate to spend their resources to manage their environmental impacts This fact leads to an obstacle for the facilities that wish to implement ISO 14001: contractors and supplier’s cooperation is limited and insufficient In ISO 14001 standards, one of the specifications is contractor/supplier evaluation to ensure the consistency in environmental management through all the value chain that the facility involves in A facility is only one element in a long value chain that makes up a product, and to make environmental management successful, a facility needs cooperation from both their upper and lower partners in the value chain The upper in the stream, whose products will be consumed by the facility, is the most important factor affecting the facility’s environmental-friendly production If a supplier has his production process certified as complied with environmental regulations, there would be some ease on the burden of environmental management of the facility However, it is hard to find out sufficient suppliers in both business and environmental terms and that is why supplier and contractor have not been as effective as the facility strives for V.1.2 Inappropriate state regulation standards The environmental practices in Vietnam have not been under strict legal and regulatory control for long Previously, environmental was among some of the less interested issues and the legal and regulatory environment is not efficient It is only recently that the government, specifically through the role of the National Department for Measurement, Standards and Quality, has issued detailed regulatory standards for environmental protection However, for an infantry environmental management system with less experience and no precedence, establishing a whole new standard system seems to be too difficult, if not impossible at that moment The result is that too many standards, which are set with reference from those of other countries, turn out to be inappropriate for Vietnamese companies These standards, such as maximum COD & BOD standards applied in advanced countries, are too high for Vietnamese companies to manage, thus making compliance with regulations too costly In the case of LV Hanoi, the facility has to establish a water treatment plant, which costs around 4,000 USD, solely to make wastewater from ordinary use complied with regulation The water treatment plant cannot be justified in financial and economic terms No any other facility, even households, in the neighborhood of LV Hanoi is able to comply with the government’s regulation standards on quality of wastewater The waste water is strictly under control but sometimes when the wastewater in the pipes is not at the standard level, caused by the neighbors though, the facility has to spend time and money on investigating and ensuring that the out-of-control waste water does not come from the facility This is a really irritating task, as LV Hanoi has to bear the responsibility of the incidents that are not under their control The facility has to spend its resources controlling the wastewater under regulations while others don’t This fact causes unfair competition in environmental management and would discourage other facilities to undertake environmental management activities 43 V.1.3 Ineffective supportive institutions Lack of effective supportive services is another difficulty for business entities that wish to build up something towards the environment A small scale facility usually starts the ISO 14001 implementation with organizational structure and procedure design, they not intend to invest in monitoring equipment, which are costly and inappropriate considering the size of the facility and equipments’ efficiency Monitoring data is, thus, not collected by the organization but outsourced In Vietnam, most of business entities are medium and small scale and to start with ISO 14001, monitoring data is not expected to be collected properly by the entity itself Training and consultation services are also at the hand of state authorities as private consultation and training is very limited in Vietnam so far State offices should be able to provide all the services above as initial assistance for small and medium scale facilities But even state authorities now also lack competence to perform such kinds of service; they have neither a large enough nor competent staff, nor equipment as well In Vietnam, the Office for Standardization, Metrology, and Quality Control is the pioneer in environmental protection and considered as the main state’s body responsible for providing guidelines, training, consultation and other services to organizations in all fields However, during the talks with us, a top authority of the office, Mr Dinh Van Tru, has mentioned deeply about the Office’s difficulties in performing the services They cannot handle the burden properly due to incompetent staff and poor monitoring equipments Most of the staff in the Office has long been there without being equipped with sufficient training to deal with environmental tasks Only some officials, who had some backgrounds on environmental management, lead the tasks, leaving a big hole in the others’ competence The number of experts who have been officially trained in environmental related fields is very limited, and so is the number of staff members who carry out environmental management and regulation practice This incompetence results in ineffective regulations, lack of economic incentives and guidance, which, in turn, affect the willingness of business entities to adopt environmental management Mr Mai Duc Lam has said that LV Hanoi could neither count on assistance from state offices and authorities, nor industrial associations, though they desire to Experience in the field is very limited in overall, leading to the needs of sharing information and knowledge among environmental runners and supportive training from state authorities But neither has come up with the expectations V.2 V.2.1 Internal difficulties Employees’ lack of competence and knowledge LV Hanoi, formerly known as Lever Haso, has established its own EMS since before the merger with Lever Viso to form the current Lever Vietnam The EMS worked pretty well throughout the time and the employees faced no serious problem in following and enhancing the system’s operation The merger turns out to be a push for the facility’s EMS Under a new and centralized management board, Unilever can press forward, urging Lever Vietnam to integrate their environmental management to the whole corporation’s worldwide system ISO 14000 is the very first target to strive for as most of Unilever’s plants in Europe have been certified with Europe’s Eco-management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) LV Hanoi comes in without a comprehensive workforce ready for a major change Employees, especially workers in production plants, play the key role in environmental management, but they lack environmental education background to effectively participate into the implementation of ISO 14001 They are, therefore, totally under guidance of EMR and a few staff members who are merely knowledgeable of environmental This incompetence hinders employees from playing their expected role in the company’s EMS, making 44 environmental management a passive practice The facility had considerable difficulties going on with this incompetent workforce when implementing ISO 14001 Another potential difficulty for the facility in the future is that when going further with other standards in the ISO 14000 series, the EMS should be expected to be much more complicated A centralized EMS would be no longer appropriate as no single person can handle properly the system Workload by then must be shared to the functional departments or a larger environmental management staff With the current staff members, it is unlikely for the facility to promote proactive improvement of the environmental performance, let alone the whole system V.2.2 Technological constraints Environmental management is not an easy task for a facility; this practice needs not only welldesigned management system but monitoring data and other controlling equipments to fill up the system as well The facility is currently limited in environmental technology capability, having just a noise parameter Lack of environmental technology capability causes the facility to depend on external contractors in collecting monitoring data Without an effective environmental technology capability, the facility has to sacrifice the perfection of environmental management practice for the available technological resources Technological consideration in setting environmental objectives and targets is also an obstacle, limiting LV Hanoi’s ability of achieving higher and farther objectives There is no priority given to environmental objectives and targets over technological constraints, despite top management’s commitment of providing the most of the facility’s resources for environmental management In fact, ISO 14001 standard does not require environmental management at all cost but within the resources available at the facility However, it is the technological resource that limited the facility’s ability to achieve higher targets and objectives Compliance with ISO 14001 is merely a start in the long road towards environmental perfection As the facility aims to go further in environmental management practice, technological ability must be strengthened respectively to back the improvement It will be too late if the facility does not make up environmental capability before considering a farther move in the EMS V.3 V.3.1 Impacts of ISO 14001 implementation On the facility’s EMS The facility’s EMS has received a strong push since the implementation of ISO 14001 Environmental management procedures have been better coordinated as they are now under the guidance of a centralized Environmental Committee led by a powerful EMR Resources are better mobilized to serve environmental management practice with all the functional managers participate in the Environmental Committee Once they involve in the issues, it would be easier to mobilize those managers’ efforts for the activities at their grounds Continuous improvements, the ultimate purpose that ISO 14000 standards series are designed for, is now the facility-wide spirit that leads all the activities in all departments and plants Since the implementation of ISO 14001, continuous improvements have been the most important mission of the facility’s EMS and the base for setting environmental objectives and targets Employees are encouraged to improve environmental management practice as well as direct environmental performance at their work, and they are willing to so As the continual improvement spirit dominates all activities, the facility has benefited from improved environmental performance without spending too much on organization and enforcement of environmental programs 45 Environmental management is now an official part of Management Review session held quarterly as ISO 14001’s requirement On this occasion, top management reviews and assesses the progress made during the quarter, approves new environmental objectives and targets for the new quarter and plans environmental programs to achieve those objectives and targets By involving directly in the process, top management is closer to the aspects what affect environmental practice of the facility Top management is, thus, able to keep an eye on the whole system, identify the problems if any and then provide the resources needed to deal with the problems Management’s commitment has been proved as the most essential success factor for any organization wishing to adopt an EMS LV Hanoi is now ensured with their management’s commitment Another benefit that LV Hanoi has received from the implementation of ISO 14001 is an increase in their employees’ involvement in the facility’s environmental management practice It is employees who identify environmental aspects, which are later the base for all environmental activities at the facility Employees are also the first level operators who are closest to recognize and report the changes necessary in the whole system to the management Detailed assignment of environmental management practice to workers at production plants has brought more employees’ active participation into the practice and, thus, mobilizes the potential human resources of the facility for environmental management V.3.2 On environmental performance Although environmental performance is not the ultimate purpose of ISO 14001 standard, LV Hanoi has reached some remarkable achievement in environmental performance since the implementation of the standard Electricity, water, and paper usage, which is somehow referred to as consumption of natural resources, has been reduced by approximately 10 percent since the implementation of ISO 14001 while the productivity of the facility remains almost the same Solid waste has been significantly reduced by 12% during the year 2000, an important mark in the environmental management record of the facility because it has never achieved such a high level of solid waste reduction over the years Wastewater of the facility, under the requirement of the standard, has complied with the state regulatory standard since the implementation of ISO 14001 It is an exceptional success for LV Hanoi regarding the location of the facility when no other facility in the neighborhood has managed to meet the state regulatory standards on wastewater It should be noted that the facility is located in a heavy industrial area of Hanoi, surrounded by many industrial facilities and several universities and colleges of Hanoi, including the National University of Hanoi This neighborhood is highly educated, therefore they are capable of recognizing the environmental excellence that LV Hanoi has produced It is so proud to be highly appreciated by the neighborhood over many other local rivals The facility is going on improving the wastewater by setting up a target that would lower the concentration of some regulated substances and factors in wastewater Enzyme and dust from production have been kept well under the company’s strict standards because they affect employees’ health directly This standard is currently much lower than the State regulatory standard The facility plans to improve these factors further with cleaner technology to ensure that they will go beyond compliance with the company’s standards, not only state regulatory standards 46 V.4 Provision for future environmental actions of LV Hanoi by EMR Mr Mai Duc Lam revealed that the facility would focus on environmental performance in the next two years to ensure a successful reexamination of the ISO 14001 certification No detailed plan for improving the EMS was mentioned, nor further progress with other standards of the ISO 14000 standards series For the facility at the moment, retaining the achievement, that is the certification, is the most important mission; other environmental objectives and targets must be set to attain this goal Specifically, the facility will set and mange to achieve remarkable environmental performance improvements as to present for a progress in the facility’s environmental management practice In the Management Review session held on January 12th 2001, environmental objectives and targets for the year 2001 have been reviewed and put into environmental programs The main areas in these targets are paper and electricity savings, chemical material use reduction, waste reduction, and awareness training for employees Environment Day, SHE contest will be used to promote employees awareness while savings will be done in coordination with Kaizen activities for production department The facility has also revealed their intent to pursue supplier or contractor evaluation though nothing has been done to establish a set of criteria for such evaluations Primarily, suppliers will be offered SHE training similar to that for the facility’s employees and the facility will take further steps to encourage them to participate in the facility environmental practice For contractors, they will be required stricter environmental performance upon the works with LV Hanoi and the facility will then try to apply their environmental standards on contractors 47 Chapter Conclusions and Recommendations I Conclusions I.1 The ultimate purpose of ISO 14000 standards series After all the reviews and analysis above, what have come to these conclusions seem to be a lack of willingness for voluntary implementation of ISO 14001 standards at LV Hanoi Most of the procedures implemented are designed to meet the regulations first and other criteria are only supplementary Compliance with regulation is the most important criterion in identifying significant environmental aspects, which have then been the base for any environment-related activities The facility has long stated that employees rights and benefits are the very important in policy making process, especially in Safety, Health and Environment Policy, The ultimate aim of what the facility has done is to polish corporate image in public perception ISO 14000 standards series of its own is a totally voluntary system, which ultimately does not need any certification to be successful Implementation of ISO 14000 is and must be voluntary and this should be the most important guideline The real and utmost value of ISO 14000 standards series is to encourage and help organizations improve their EMS continually, not to be certified by some well-known organization The practice at LV Hanoi is obviously to deal with regulations and by that means the facility would probably gain some good reputation Although the facility has benefited from savings in energy, water and raw material use, environmental objectives and targets have not been designed as an systematic environment-oriented process, but as to provide continuous improvements which are required in the certification of ISO 14001 standards But event though the facility has exerted much efforts in these improvements, they seem to forget or misunderstand the exact requirements in the standards; that is continuous improvements of the process, not the performance Indeed, environmental objectives and targets at LV Hanoi sometimes have some effects on the improvements of the EMS, such as awareness training, but totally they are environmental performance oriented Reluctant implementation of ISO 14000 standards series is a certain obstacle to the facility to go beyond regulations and standards as the wish of the people who have developed this standards series Merely looking for compliance with regulations is obviously a passive approach, which will prevent a systematic and strategic development of EMS Regulations shall be the most important factor influencing the operations of a business entity, but compliance with environmental regulations is never enough to save the environment from damages Regulations set by human are always late because they reflect the facts of the society, which have severe effects on the social practice The effects that regulations have upon environmental protection practice are only corrective and almost nonsense During the time we wait for regulatory effects, our Earth has been damaged much more That is why the authors of ISO 14000 standards series have designed it as a voluntary system, which seeks for continuous improvements of the EMS with the assumption that improvements in the EMS would automatically leads to improved environmental performance An EMS is the means to achieve sustainability in both the environmental performance and the way we improve the performance, sustainable development must go on that way to be perfectly sustainable Dealing with regulation is only a perspective in management of the environment and should not be 48 considered as the dead end of environmental practice Improvements of EMS should be made as a whole process, not from an individual perspective despite how significant the perspective is I.2 Perspectives of implementing ISO 14000 standards series in Vietnam In general, the business environment in Vietnam is underdeveloped and so is the public perception about environmental protection Gaining a competitive edge through environmental management is now difficult; therefore, strategic meaning of implementing ISO 14000 standards series is not appealing to top management of a business entity Bold investments into environmental management are hard to be justified as all competitors are in the race of cost reduction In fact, implementation of such a standards series like ISO 14001 is already costly to most of Vietnamese business entities, let alone an implementation of the complete pack of ISO 14000 series Financing the implementation while not badly affecting the operation is indeed the most challenging task when a facility considers sticking with ISO 14000 This is the strongest obstacle in spreading ISO 14000 standards series implementation in Vietnam Poor supportive institutions and services also cause hesitancy among Vietnamese organizations that want to make a step towards ISO 14000 implementation and certification Apart from inappropriate state regulatory standards, lack of effective supports from state authorities and industrial associations makes it difficult for small and medium enterprises to find the right and affordable way towards environmental management However, there are also bright prospects for implementation of ISO 14000 standards series in Vietnam As discussed in chapter 2, ISO 14000 series is developed upon the success of ISO 9000 series Both standards series are process-focused and many procedures in ISO 9000 can be applied in the implementation of ISO 14000 A good approach for implementation of ISO 14000 is through the experience of implementing ISO 9000 In Vietnam today, ISO 9000 has been widely accepted and implemented in many organizations of all fields With hundreds of organizations having been certified with ISO 9000 and many more to come, there would possibly be an experience exchange center for all organizations interested in applying ISO 14000 State authorities and private consulting firms experiential with implementing ISO 9000 would be a useful source of training and consulting services for ISO 14000 pursuers The current wave of implementing ISO 9000 in Vietnam could be a strong push for ISO 14000 implementation II Recommendations II.1 For LV Hanoi The facility has been certified with ISO 14001, a marked achievement on the way towards perfection in environmental management However, ISO 14001 is only one and initial standards of the ISO 14000 family Although the first is always the most difficult, ISO 14001 certification should be a good start, but not the end yet because the nature of ISO 14000 is to strive for continuous improvement, even after being certified with all ISO 14000 standards series To proceed further with the series, systematic planning and preparations should be made to make sure of solid and complete improvements of the environmental management practice The recommendations below are to draw a plan for the facility to consolidate their EMS and suggest some tips to continue with the ISO 14000 standards series 49 II.1.1 Offer more sufficient training to employees Lack of competent workforce is probably the toughest obstacle for LV Hanoi on the way towards environmental perfection Employees are incompetence not only to develop and improve the current EMS but also to operate it properly Monitoring and measurement activities are all contracted with external agents while the improvement of the EMS counts on active participation of employees in monitoring their significant environmental aspects As long as employees still lack knowledge and skills to perform well in monitoring environmental aspects, they will not be able to exert any effort to improve the environmental management on those aspects They, therefore, need more sufficient training to perform and take full control over environmental aspects at their work Training for employees should focus on development of operational skills, not only awareness raising Environmental management staff at LV Hanoi also needs extensive training through other perspectives of environmental management practice Knowledge in other areas such as Life Cycle Management and Environmental Performance Evaluation would be highly needed for further improvements of the EMS of the facility as well as the implementation of other standards in the 14000 series The parent corporation, Unilever, would be a valuable source in providing training help for environmental management staff of LV Hanoi II.1.2 Improve external communication channel An organization’s image is largely affected by its external communication channel The information released and the way of releasing information should be paid equal attention to At LV Hanoi, it is necessary to review the external communication because the facility’s environmental information has not been made readily accessible for external interested parties Therefore, the facility’s environmental policy and achievements have not been communicated very well to the public, and, thus, does not help to promote the facility’s green image among the community Information requests have to go through a strict procedure before being confirmed of the reply and not all information requests are replied Although the facility has held several meetings for interested parties but the quest for environmental information does not come only on that occasion Judging environmental information requests on its motivation is nonsense simply because it is almost impossible to justify the true motivation behind Such judgment can only bring adverse effect as it will chase away interested parties or they may doubt the true performance of the EMS Things beyond a close door are usually supposed to be hidden Openness to the public is worth much more than an advertisement, not only in environmental management Internet should be considered for a better communication in long run The Internet has become more and more popular in Vietnam and this is an effective means for advertising With the achievements so far, the facility should promote their policy and practices through the net to reach out for the huge public II.1.3 Establish an EMS evaluation system and parameters An evaluation system is essential for the facility to review the improvements of their EMS Evaluation is very much needed as it shows how the EMS has been operated along the way, how the resources have been spent on the EMS Environmental objectives and targets are set based on the operation of current EMS and they need EMS evaluation to be justified Only from the achievements that have been reached can the facility set up new objectives and targets to move the EMS forward, otherwise they may not be able to create a systematic effect on the EMS Actually, 50 environmental objectives and targets at LV Hanoi are set with the assumption that they are not any different from environmental performance targets These objectives and targets come in as piece by piece by subjective evaluation of the EMR based on environmental reports from functional managers Therefore, current environmental objectives and targets cannot help LV Hanoi to improve their EMS in a visionary approach EMS evaluation needs a comprehensive criteria set, which provides objective parameters for management to measure the progress of the EMS The criteria setting procedure should be joined by all the functional managers, who are close to the operational activities of the EMS A brainstorming session could be a good approach to raise the opinions about which parameters should be used and how they should be measured Knowledge of functional managers is very helpful in identifying whether an indicator at their worksite is measurable or not and how to measure it Then the methodology for indicators measuring and reporting can be agreed between the EMR and functional managers Once the functional managers have participated in the setting procedure, they will be able to design measuring and process and periodically report to the EMR Parameters should be reviewed quarterly to assess if they are still relevant and to modify or replace the parameters if needed II.1.4 Delegate EMS responsibilities further As the facility aims to proceed further in environmental management practice, a centralized EMS and EMR will be no longer able to handle the workloads, especially when the practice will be spread through other ISO 14000 standards Besides, when the EMS is more developed, employees will need more autonomy to add more value into the EMS; collective creativity would be of much use rather than guidance and instruction from the EMS To prepare for a delegation of the EMS responsibilities, employees must be competent enough to handle the autonomy they are given Training should be the first thing to offer, but be careful not to provide them unplanned training design as the training would bring adverse effect, causing employees confusion about their roles and responsibilities within the system At the moment, training at LV Hanoi is designed on a regular basis, which is based on the facility’s standards of Safety, Health and Environment The training has been offered to the employees as a minimal level required and almost the same for all employees No specific environmental training is designed for specific employees, causing gap in knowledge among them Indeed, employees are different by their environmental knowledge, depending on their background and perceptibility Gap analysis is necessary to identify training needs of employees and to design training to offer Only one orientation session is not enough to identify training need of the employees through many dimensions Instead, based on the development plan of the EMS, EMR will define new roles and responsibilities, and the competencies to fulfill new tasks Employees’ competencies must then be reexamined to assess whether they are able to take new charge If not, they will need training to be competent enough, training needs would be identified promptly and training design should be more effective A decentralized EMS would require more horizontal communication within the facility among functional managers The EMR by then will play the role of a coordinator rather than commander The communication procedure, therefore, should be restructured to allow more inter-department environmental information exchange Along with the change in the system, a new division responsible for legal related issues should be established to deal with environmental regulation changes Environmental regulations are expected to be fast changing in the next few years if Vietnam wants to catch up the world environmental management practice at least in the legal 51 perspective Outsourcing is not a good solution to keep pace with the changes and the facility should handle the task on their own A decentralization of EMS should take a long time from its current highly centralized state, but it would never be reached without a start Considering a move by now is merely on time II.1.5 Continue with other standards in the ISO 14000 series The road towards environmental perfection is never ended but the ISO 14000 standards series at least provide direction for those who wish to achieve that end To continue with other standards in the series could equip the facility with comprehensive tools to go further onwards Tougher missions may be in product evaluation standards, where many other detailed perspectives that are closer to the market and public perception must be put into consideration Life Cycle Management standards (ISO 1404x) should be a good step for the next progress as it can brings immediate benefits when the facility reviews their production processes Besides, this practice does not focus on conformance with regulations and rules but stress strongly on self-improvement through cooperation with upstream and downstream partners in the value chain To make others involved in the facility’s environmental management practice is a strategic step to utilize the advantage of the facility as being environmental pioneers This characteristic of the standards should be a good reason for the facility to start Life Cycle Management has been adopted widely not only with the ISO 14000 standards series but EMAS also Therefore, LV Hanoi can expect effective training and shared experienced from many sources, including their parent corporation in Europe II.2 For State authorities Inappropriate legal and regulatory requirements are the hottest problem that LV Hanoi and many other organizations in Vietnam are facing on their way to successful implementation of ISO 14000 standards series The cost for coping with these inappropriate regulations has been a big problem, not to mention the frustration it caused to these organizations It costs LV Hanoi a water treatment plant to reduce the COD and BOD to the standards’ requirement level, just to see their neighbors walk free from punishment while they still emit wastewater with much higher level on the same indicators Legal and regulatory requirements on environmental protection are obstacles only to those who intend to respect them Indeed, enforcement of regulations is much more needed than the regulations themselves to create a fair playing ground for all the business entities Violators of regulations must be punished or at least pay for their violation, otherwise it may reverse the effect on those who comply with the law Supportive institutions and industrial associations should play a leading role to encourage the implementation of ISO 14000 standards series By now in Vietnam, it is difficult for individual organizations to gather themselves and establish voluntary centers to coordinate the efforts to support such a new practice in the society No non-governmental organization is capable of standing up and providing adequate supportive services for the practice The role should be led by state authorities, which have the available status to so Initial performance of service should be charged but later on could be left to the organizations themselves to manage and coordinate the practice 52 II.3 Recommendation for further studies This research does not cover an industry analysis to draw an industry-specific context for implementation of ISO 14000 standards series, nor does it map out a comprehensive framework to develop the legal regulation for environmental protection in Vietnam The scope of the research is also limited to the practice of implementing the sole ISO 14001 standard in an industrial facility, but not any other standards in the ISO 14000 series These issues, therefore, need further studies Future studies are suggested to investigate industry-specific context to better assess the possibility and prospects of implementing the whole ISO 14000 standards series 53 Bibliography Books Asian Productivity Organization, 1997 ISO 14000 for Small and Medium Enterprises Tokyo: Asian Productivity Organization 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LV HANOI 19 I CURRENT VIETNAMESE LAWS AND REGULATIONS ON ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 19 II SOCIAL TRENDS AND PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF ENVIRONMENTAL PERFECTION .22 III COMPANY PROFILE... soon take environmental protection into serious concern and environmental issues can no longer be ignored from business consideration Historically, environmental management in corporations and small... Standardization, Metrology, and Quality Control is the pioneer in environmental protection and considered as the main state’s body responsible for providing guidelines, training, consultation and