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)