Eco-standards coming soon

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Council for National Standardization is planning to issue next year specific guidelines for environmental-conscious companies wishing to implement the recently introduced environmental management standards.

"The council is currently studying ISO 14000. Hopefully Indonesia can begin to use them early next year," said council secretary Herudi Kartowisastro between breaks at a seminar on Environmental Management System held by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) yesterday.

On Sept. 1, the International Organization for Standardization issued ISO 14000, an international accreditation system, which acknowledges that recipient companies have employed environmentally-friendly management policies.

The series was introduced in the wake of the increasing importance given to environmental considerations in international trade.

"The adoption of it, therefore, is voluntary. It shows the company's good-will toward the environment and their customers," Herudi said.

Indonesia has taken to ISO 14000 much faster than it did ISO 9000. It adopted the ISO 9000 standard for good quality management in 1992, five years after it was introduced, he said.

No sanctions will be imposed on companies that do not adopt ISO 14000.

At least six performance categories are stipulated in ISO 14000, including environmental management systems, auditing, eco- labeling, and performance evaluation.

According to Herudi, ISO 14000 is being modified to encourage small and medium-scale enterprises to adopt the guidelines.

The Indonesian version of ISO 14000 will be called the Indonesian National Standard (SNI) series 14000. It will contain specific guidelines, accreditation systems and review methodologies.

P.L. Coutrier, who heads the section on environmental impact assessment (Amdal) at the Environmental Impact Management Agency Deputy (Bapedal), refused to acknowledge claims of some companies which say they have already complied with and earned accreditation for ISO 14000.

"We refuse to acknowledge them because we have not even developed a national system to asses and evaluate the standard," Coutrier said. (14)