Manufacturers advised to apply ISO-14000

Manufacturers advised to apply ISO-14000

JAKARTA (JP): Manufacturers were advised to apply ISO-14000
standards for environment management systems yesterday to meet
consumer demand for "green products" and prepare them for the
global market.

Surna T. Djajadiningrat, an assistant to the State Minister of
Environment, told a seminar yesterday that voluntary
implementation of environmental management systems (EMS) would be
the only way that manufacturers could survive in the global
market.

"The 'green production' movement in developed countries is
gaining considerable support from both consumers and retailers
while importers are also starting to prefer green products," he
said.

Yesterday's seminar, held by the Ardhi Foundation and attended
by about 60 businesspeople, discussed ways to increase national
industries' competitiveness through the implementation of EMS
standards.

Surna said Indonesian companies were not ready to face
globalization in which strict environmental standards would be
applied.

"Companies here are still asleep; many assume only exporters
are required to apply EMS," he said.

Liana Bratasida, the head of the Environmental Impact
Management Agency's directorate for technical development, said
that once world trade was fully liberalized, the companies
dominating the domestic market would have to start worrying about
import competition.

"Maybe these companies think that supplying the domestic
market frees them from the need to comply with EMS standards. But
what if good-quality imports of the same price start to enter?"
she asked.

She said the only remaining advantage of these companies in
attracting consumers would be their products' compliance with EMS
standards.

P.L. Coutrier, a deputy chief of Bapedal, said that "green
consumers" should "never be disregarded".

"Remember that it is green consumers who have money. They have
the power to choose, and they will choose green products," he
told the seminar.

Certification

Liana Bratasida explained that EMS certification was being
developed by the International Organization for Standardization
(ISO) under the ISO-14000 series.

The series consists of environmental management systems (EMS);
life cycle assessments; environmental auditing; environmental
labeling; environmental performance evaluation; and terms and
definitions.

The only ISO standard which requires certification is the EMS
standard, listed in the ISO-14001 document.

"In ISO-14001, EMS is defined as a part of the whole
managerial system.. which includes organization, planning and
development," she said.

Surna said companies should not see pollution control and the
treatment and management of waste as a cost.

He warned that mere "end of pipe" solutions to waste problems
and pollution prevention were insufficient, because companies
only treated their final waste without regard to the over-all
production process.

"Seeking a solution to industrial waste problems should now be
approached through a 'front of the pipe' technique. This means
that improvements and assessments are made not only to the waste
but to the over-all production process," he said.

This approach, known as a "cleaner production" or "waste-
minimization" approach, can detect inefficiencies in a process.

Liana said it was up to companies whether they applied an end-
of-pipe solution, a pollution-prevention technique or a cleaner
production process.

"The drive must come voluntarily from management... because
the company is the only one to know how it affects the
environment and, if so, what it wants to do about it," she said.
(pwn)