ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE COMPANIES IN NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

Environmental Management System refers to management of an organization’s environmental programs in a comprehensive, systematic, planned and documented manner. It includes the organizational structure, planning and resources for developing, implementing and maintaining policy for environmental protection. It is not surprising that collectively, SMEs also have major  The increasing demands for consideration of the environmental impacts may result in SMEs being required to at least consider environmental management systems implementation based on standards such as the ISO 14001 series, developed by the International Organization for Standardization. In this situation, an EMS may be considered both a cost and a benefit to the organization. The aim and objective of this project work is to study the Environmental Management Systems in small and medium scale companies using Lagos as a case study. Five small and medium scale companies namely: Ulysses, Regency Overseas, Onward Paper mill, Techno Oil Ltd and VGC Water were used for this project research. Questionnaires were administered to the management staff and employees below the management level of the selected companies and the two selected regulators-SON and LASEPA. The findings obtained from the survey carried out on the companies indicated that these companies were not yet Environmental Management System (ISO14001) certified. This study therefore recommends that Environmental Management Systems should be implemented in SMEs because the integration of EMSs into a company process of activities will help to support environmental sustainability and also help the companies to reduce their resource consumption of water, electricity, heat energy and discharge of waste. This research work is made up of five chapters. Chapter One dealt with the introduction to the subject matter; Chapter Two examined the conceptual ad theoretical framework to the study; Chapter Three stated the methodology used in carrying out the research work; Chapter Four covered the discussion of findings and results obtained from the survey. Lastly and Chapter Five concluded on the whole research work and recommendations were drawn from the results obtained from the survey findings. 

 

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE                                                                                                                            PAGE

CERTIFICATION                                                                                                                 ii

DEDICATION                                                                                                                       iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT                                                                                                    iv

ABSTRACT                                                                                                                           v

TABLE OF CONTENTS                                                                                                      vi

LIST OF TABLE                                                                                                                   vii

 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 DEFINITION OF ENVIRONMENT                                                                             1

1.2 THE NEED FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (EMS)         3

1.3 THE OBJECTIVES OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS           4

1.4 THE CORE ELEMENTS OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT    5     

       SYSTEM

1.5 OBJECTIVES AND HYPOTHESES OF STUDY                                                       19       

 

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1       CONCERNS ON ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES                                        20

2.2       AN OVERVIEW OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT                    21

SYSTEMS IN MANUFACTURING COMPANIES

2.3       WHY INTRODUCE AN ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM                        22

2.4       FUNCTIONS OF INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS ORGANIZATION           22

2.5       ELEMENTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS     23

OR ISO 14001

2.6       CURRENT STATUS OF EMS PRACTICES IN MANUFACTURING        37   COMPANIES IN NIGERIA:

2.7       REVIEW OF EXISTING FEDERAL, STATE ENVIRONMENTAL       38

LAWS & REGULATIONS

2.8       THE COMPONENTS OF A GOOD ENVIRONMENTAL                                   41

 MANAGEMENT SYSTEM:

2.9        STUDY QUESTIONS                                                                                              43

 

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

3.1 INTRODUCTION                                                                                                           44

3.2 FACE TO FACE INTERVIEWS                                                                                   44

3.3 QUESTIONNAIRE ADMINISTRATION                                                                    45

3.4 DATA COLLECTION AND RATE OF RETURNING OF                            47

     QUESTIONNAIRE

CHAPTER FOUR

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.0       INTRODUCTION                                                                                                     51

4.1       QUESTIONNAIRE ADMINISTRATION                                                   51

4.2       FINDINGS                                                                                                                 52

4.3.      INVESTIGATION OF EMPLOYEES’ KNOWLEDGE OF THE                         60

EXISTENCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

POLICY IN THE RESPECTIVE COMPANIES

 

4.4.      INVESTIGATION OF REGULATORS PERSPECTIVE ON TRAINING           87

4.5       DISCUSSION ON FINDINGS                                                                                 101

4.6       DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS FROM REGULATORS ON THE EMS        106

            PERFORMANCE OF THE STUDIED COMPANIES

 

CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 CONCLUSION                                                                                                               111

5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS                                                                                                113

 

REFERENCES                                                                                                                    115

APPENDIX

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 DEFINITION OF ENVIRONMENT:

Environment, according to the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English means surrounding. This definition fails to mention the extent of the surrounding is made up of. The environment, in fact, includes everything living and non living: air, water, land animals and plants among others. The environment also involves the ways living and non-living objects interact as well as what result from such interactions. Birds, for example, interact with rocks either by perching on them, or the building of nests in rock crevices. The environment and humanity are inseparable; this underscores the need for the conservation of the environment and sustainable development. From the above definition of ‘Environment’, one can see clearly that environment means much, much more than one’s compound or school premises or one’s village.

What does pollution means? Pollution is simply defined as the poisoning of the air, the land and the seas.

Now, degradation. The degradation of the environment means the wearing down of the environment by various processes such as the action of water, wind, ice or erosion.

By conservation of the environment we mean the preservation and protection of the environment against pollution and degradation.

In its report “Our Common Future”, the World Commission on Environment and Development, defined economic growth as necessary for sustainable development. But commission noted that growth alone is not enough, since high levels of productivity and widespread poverty do coexist and endanger the environment. Agenda 21 recognized that the private sector plays a major role in achieving sustainable development, both by fostering economic growth and by reducing environmental impact. The challenges for business and industries is to provide environmentally sustainable growth; they must devise strategies to maximize added value while minimizing resources and energy use. The need for clean, equitable economic growth remains the biggest single difficulty within the larger challenge of sustainable development.

Business in industrialized nations has begun to move from a pollution of limiting pollution and waste only in compliance with government regulations towards one of avoiding pollution and waste not just to be good corporate citizens but also to be more efficient and competitive. In response, the economies of the industrialized countries have grown even though the resources and energy to produce each unit of growth have declined.

Eco efficiency requires not only challenges in technology, but also in management; such issues as changes in the objectives and assumptions that direct corporate activities, and in the day-to-day practices used to reach those objectives. Managing for the environment is not a new idea but a systematic approach to it is now being developed.

The forthcoming ISO 14000 SERIES sets standards for corporate environmental management on an international level. These standards have been set not by some international regulatory body, but with the full participation of the private sector who will implement them. One of several advantages the standards will bring is the creation of a more environmentally sensitive industrial culture, which will result in a more efficient use of raw and waste material, reduction of emissions and increased investment in pollution control abatement and cleaner technologies.

 

1.2 THE NEED FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (EMS)

An environmental management system (EMS) is interpreted as the organizational structure, including practices, processes, resources and responsibilities for implementing environmental management. Such a system should enable organizations to achieve and demonstrate on-going compliance with regulations. It should allow organizations to control the environmental impact of all activities, products and services taking into account the environmental impact of all activities, products and services taking into account a self-determined environment. The need for Environmental Management System are:

a. Organisation and facilities are increasingly aware of the need to achieve and demonstrate sound environmental performance by controlling the different aspects and the significant impacts of their activities, products or services on the environment. They do so in the context of increasingly stringent legislation, the development of economic policies and other measures to foster environmental protection, and a growing of concern from interested parties about the threats of industrialization to sustainable development.

b. Many Organisations have undertaken environmental ‘’reviews’’ or ‘’audits’’ to assess their environmental performance. On their own, however, these ‘’reviews’’ or ‘’audits’’ may not be sufficient to provide an Organisation with the assurance that its performance not only meets, but will continue to meet its legal and policy requirements. To be effective, they need to be conducted within a structured management system and integrated with overall management activity.

c. The Environmental Performance of an Organisation is of increasing importance to internal and external interested parties. Achieving sound environmental performance requires  Organisational commitment to a systematic approach and to continual improvement of the environment.

d. An EMS provides order and consistency through the allocation of resources, assignment of responsibilities, and continuous evaluation of practices, procedures and processes. An EMS is therefore: part of the enterprises enterprise’s overall management system. It includes the organizational structure, planning activities, practices, procedures, processes, and resources for implementing and maintaining environmental management. It includes those aspects of management that plan, develop pment, implement, achieve, review. Maintain and improve the companies environmental policy, objectives and targets.

1.3 THE OBJECTIVES OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

The objective of installing an EMS by organizations is mainly to ensure continual improvement through the life of a facility or facilities in the management system of the organization. Specifically, an Environmental Management System is intended to help the organisation to:

a. Achieve its environmental policy, objectives and targets, including compliance with environmental legislation.

b. Identify and control the environmental aspect, impacts and risks relevant to the organization.

c. Define a basic set of principles that guide the organization to its environmental responsibilities in the future.

d. Establish short, medium and long –term goals for environmental performance, and ensuring costs and benefits analysis, for the organization and for its various shareholders and stakeholders.

e. Determine what resources are needed to achieve those goals, assign responsibilities for them and commit the necessary resources.

f. Define and document specific tasks responsibilities, authorities and procedures to ensure that every employee acts in the course of their his/her work to help minimize or eliminate the organisation’s negative impact on the environment.

g. Communicate the organisation’s environmental policies, objectives and targets and procedures to all employees and to third parties who may be affected by these policies.

h. Measure performance against pre-agreed standards and goals, and modify the approach as necessary.

 

1.4 THE CORE ELEMENTS OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

 Environmental Management Systems will be different for different types of organizations, depending on the nature, size and complexity of activities, products and services. However, all Environmental Management Systems have a number of core elements in common. The core elements include but are not limited to the following:

-Environmental Policy

-Initial Environmental Review

-Environmental Action Plan

-Organisational Structure and Management Responsibilities

-Documentation and Communication

-Training

-Management Review

 

a. The environmental policy

i. Environmental policy expresses the commitment of senior management to appropriate environmental management. It should not be a once –and-for-all document. The aim of the policy shall be to maintain and potentially improve environmental performance. It is to form the basis upon which objectives and target are set. It should reflects the commitment of top management to comply with relevant environmental legislative and other requirements; and for continual improvement

ii. Fundamentally, an environmental policy shall

·        Contain a broad statement of intent

·        Be appropriate to production activities and products and services.

·        Make provision for commitment to continual improvement.

·        Make clear the procedure of preventing pollution.

·        State commitment to comply with legislation, regulation and other regulatory requirements.

·        Provide frame work for setting and reviewing environmental targets and objectives.

·        Be documented, implemented and maintained.

·        Be made available to appropriate regulatory authority and any other interested party.

·        Be made public.

 

b. Initial Environmental Review (IER)

i. In order to achieve success, an early step in developing and improving an EMS involves obtaining commitment of the top management of an organization. An organization that has no EMS in place or that has not conducted an IER. The aim of such a review should be to identify all environmental aspects and/or impacts of its activities, products and services. Also, the aim of an initial review is to establish a facility’s current performance level in the Ems with the view to formulate an articulated environmental policy.

ii. To carry out a thorough review, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the production processes or services from ‘’cradle- to-grave’’ is imperative. The LCA should examine the different aspects and possible significant impacts of all inputs at all stages of production or services to its eventual disposal.

iii. An IER shall consider normal operating conditions, shutdown and startup condition including realistic potential significant aspects and impacts that could be associated with reasonably foreseeable or emergency situations.

iv. The process of identifying significant environmental aspects shall where appropriate, consider any or all of the following.

·        Human health

·        Air and Water quality

·        Waste Management

·        Contamination of Land

·        Use of raw materials and natural resources.

v. Fundamentally, an IER shall address the following:

·        Identification of relevant legislation’s, regulations and other regulatory requirements.

·        Identification, evaluation and documentation of significant environmental aspects of its activities, products or services.

·        Evaluation of existing management practices and procedures.

·        All other elements of feedback from the investigations of previous incidents.

vi. The IER Report shall contain the following essential elements:-

·        Introduction/ context of review

·        Scope of review

·        Issues and objectives

·        Methodology

·        Information resources

·        Summary of findings

·        Identification of corrective action plan and the time-frame for its implementation

·        Resources requirement for implementation

·        Conclusion

vii. ER shall be carried out at least once annually except there is a certificate of exemption from FEPA.

viii. IER shall be carried out by one or all of the following persons or groups of persons.

·        A competent Environmental Monitoring Team

·        Competent and certified employee(s) in each of the production stages and/or services

·        Accredited FEPA consultants.

 

c. Environmental Action Plan

i. An environmental action plan shall translate the environmental policies into objectives and targets; and identities activities to achieve them, defines employees responsibilities and commit the necessary human and financial resources for implementation. The action plan should rely on or use the assembled overview of the environmental aspects and legal regulatory requirements. The objectives and targets of an action plan shoulb be:

·        Specific

·        Ambitious

·        Realistic and achievable

·        Time-bound

ii. The action plan shall address the following:

·        Objectives and targets

·        Identity activities to accomplish set objectives and targets

·        Identity and implement steps taken to achieve set objectives and targets

·        Define and delegates roles and responsibilities

·        Provide material and human resources

·        Identify relevant regulations, guidelines and other regulatory requirements relevant to operation.

 

d. Organisation Structures and Management Responsibilities

i. The organisational structure of a facilities shall contain the flow of authority, responsibilities and interrelationships of all those in the organization to effect the proper functioning of the EMS.

ii. The responsibilities of the organizational management shall include but not limited to:

·        Establishing and maintaining EMS with the commitment of the chief executive/managing director.

·        Providing all resources needed for the implementation of the EMS. This shall include human, financial, material, technology and specialized skills.

·        Appointing an Environmental Manager who should have at least a formal training in environmental management and technology. The Environmental Manager shall

-Ensure that EMS requirements are established, implemented and maintained in accordance with this National Guideline.

-Report back to management on the performance of the EMS for the purposes of review and for evaluation to ensure continual improvement.

·        Constituting an Environmental committee. The committee shall include all cadres of staff.

iii.  Also management shall integrate EMS into business operation by:

·        Establishing, documenting and maintaining a procedure for integrating the EMS into the day-to-day business operation of the organisation. This shall include provision for awareness training, internal communication, documentation, document control, risk assessment, emergency preparedness and response, planning and response to complaint from external and other interested parties.

The procedures shall incorporate environmental measures into protection of workers, purchasing, research and development, product development, marketing, finance etc.

·        Establishing specific procedures for identifying environmental aspects, impact and corrective measures arising from its activites and services

·        Establishing and maintaining detailed procedure for implementing its Action plan within the specified period.

·        Establishing and maintaining procedure for publishing the annual environmental statement to public and stakeholders.

 

vi. Management shall also maintain a mitigation and prevention action by:

·        Establishing and maintaining procedures for investigating and correcting non-compliance.

·        Indentifying the cause of non-compliance.

·        Identifying and implementing necessary corrective action.

·        Implementing controls necessary to avoid repetition of non-compliance.

·        Recording any changes in written procedures resulting from corrective action.

·        Defining responsibility and authority in areas of non-compliance to cover the following: handling & investigation; mitigation of impacts; initiation & completion of actions; appropriateness of action.

·        Ensuring that the corrective & preventive actions are implemented and with a follow-up to ensure their effectiveness.

 

E. ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM(EMS) AUDIT

Another responsibility of the management is the establishment and maintenance of programmes and procedures for EMS audits. The audit shall be aimed at determining whether or not the EMS:

·        Is in compliance with planned arrangement for environmental management.

·        Has been implemented and maintained as described or planned.

·        Provides information for management scrutiny review.

The EMS audit programme and procedure shall cover all aspects of organisation’s activities, products or services from cradle to grave except otherwise stated by FEPA.

i. EMS Audit process shall include:

·        Scope, objectives and frequency of audits

·        Methodologies used

·        Responsibilities and requirements for conducting audit

·        Pre-audit meetings

·        Audit-process and recording of findings

·        Audit Evaluation

·        Presentation of findings.

·        Agreed corrective action and the time frame.

·        Interim Report

·        Follow-up audit and close-out.

·        Audit Report.

ii. The frequency of an EMS audit shall depend on:

·        The level of compliance from results of previous audits

·        The nature of the operation in terms of its environmental aspects and potential impacts.

·        The number of employee in each of the production stages and/or services and their ability and competence.

iii. The EMS Audit shall be carried out by any of the following persons or group of persons

·        Competent Environmental Monitoring Team and/or

·        FEPA accredited consultants.

vi. An EMS Audit Report shall include:

·        Name of the organization

·        Scope of activities, products/services covered

·        Identification of the auditee and the auditee’s representative

·        Audit dates

·        Audit team members

·        Audit plan

·        Audit Method

·        Audit findings

·        Recommendations and conclusion

The audit shall be carried out as contained in FEPA’s guidelines on Environmental Audit.

F.         DOCUMENTATION AND COMMUNICATION

i. There should be sufficient documentation to describe the core elements of the environment management system and their interaction. The documentation should provide direction on where to obtain more detailed information on the operation of specific parts of the environment management system. Such documentation shall include:

·        Process information

·        Organisational charts

·        Work instruction etc.

 

Documents can be in any medium and should be useful and easily understood

ii. All documentation should be dated (with dates of revision, readily identifiable, organised and retained for a specified period. All documents shall be periodically reviewed/revised as necessary and shall be approved for use by authorized personnel prior to issue .Current versions of relevant documents shall be available at all locations where operations essential to the effective functioning of the system are performed. Obsolete documents shall be promptly removed from all points of issue and use.

 

G.        MONITORING, MEASURING AND RECORD KEEPING PROCEDURE:

i. A document for monitoring, measuring and record keeping shall be written. This document shall describe procedures to document and monitor results of specific actions and programmes as well as the overall effects of environmental improvements. Operations and activities that can have significant impact on the environment shall be monitored periodically except otherwise stated by FEPA. This document shall identify and document the various Environmental Performance Programme(EPP) for all actions and programmes. Procedures for identification, maintenance and disposition of records needed for the implementation and operation of the EMS shall also be documented.

H. The organization shall establish and maintain procedures for the identification, access, filing maintenance, and disposition of environmental records. The organization shall determine retention times of records bearing in mind legislative and other requirements. Retention times shall be recorded.

ii. Environmental records shall include:

·        Information on relevant environment regulations and requirements

·        Complaints

·        Staff education/training

·        Inspection maintenance and calibration records

·        Products information

·        Incidents reports

·        Pertinent contractor and supplier information

·        Significant environmental aspects

·        Management Review

·        Periodic Reports

 

I. INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COMMUNICATION:

iii. With regards to Environmental Management Systems, the organization shall:-

·        Establish and maintain procedures for internal communication at all levels of the organisation

·        Raise awareness of the organisation’s environmental policies, objectives, targets and programs

·        Receive, document, verify and respond to relevant information and requests from external interested parties, stakeholders

·        Communicate environmental goals and performance to interested members of the public i.e. stakeholders

·        Publish an annual environmental statement to regulatory authorities and other interested parties. (The contents of the statement shall be specific as contained in FEPA’s Guidelines on environmental company report)

·        Address necessary communications with public authorities regarding emergency planning and other relevant issues.

·        Communicate the findings of EMS monitoring to all cadre of staff

·        Consider processes for external communication on its significant environmental aspects and its decision e.g. through annual report, regulatory submissions public government records, industry association publications, the media or paid advertisement or the likes.

 

J.         TRAINING

i. The Organisation shall:

·        Identify the needs of all employee whose job impact upon the quality of the EMS

·        Develop a training plan to address defined needs

·        Verify the conformity of training programme to regulatory organizational or other requirements

·        Train of target employee groups

·        Document of training received

·        Evaluate training received

·        Ensure continual awareness programme for its employees including casual workers making them aware of:

-the importance of compliance with policy, procedure and requirement of EMS

-the significant environmental impact, actual or potential of their work action and the environmental benefits of improved personal performance

-their roles and responsibilities in achieving compliance with the environmental policy and procedures and with requirement of EMS including emergency preparedness and response plan

-the likely consequences and dangers associated with non-compliance

-establish and maintain records of training provided.

 

K.        MANAGEMENT REVIEW

In order to ensure the adequacy and continual suitability and effectiveness of the environmental management system, top management staff of the organization shall:-

(i)  Review and evaluate the environmental management system annually

(ii)  Ensure that necessary information is collected to allow top management to carry out this evaluation.

(iii)  Ensure that the scope of review is comprehensive and shall include:-

(a)  findings of Ems Audit

(b)  policy

(c)  procedures

(d)  a review of environmental objectives/target

(e)  commitment

vi. Management review findings including corrective actions and any changes to the

EMS shall be documented and communicated to all cadres of staff and the public.

 

1.5 OBJECTIVES AND HYPOTHESES OF STUDY

The objectives of study are:

·        To investigate the roles of Environmental Management System in Small and Medium Scale companies.

·        To investigate extent of adoption of of tenets of EMS in SMEs

·        To examine the factors responsible for the failure/success  of SMEs in EMS adoption and implementation

·        To make recommendations for improvement in adoption of EMS

 

1.5.1 Hypotheses of the Study were:-

Hypotheses a: ISO 14001 EMS implementation has a positive and significant relationship with Nigerian SMEs business performance.

Hypotheses b: The extent of adoption of EMS in SMEs in Nigeria is a total failure.

Hypotheses c: Adoption of tenets of EMS in SMEs has significant roles on environmental management.

Hypothesis d: The investigation of the factors responsible for the failure of SMEs in EMS has no significant influence on its performance.

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