State companies vow to protect environment

State companies vow to protect environment

JAKARTA (JP): More than 117 state-owned companies yesterday
pledged to carry out environmentally sound practices and to live
up to international trade standards.

"In international trade ... we are already feeling the
constraints in marketing our products, as a large part of
Indonesia's export destinations of finished products are
countries which have applied strict environmental criteria," said
Suardin, the production director of PT Pupuk Sriwijaya Palembang,
a state-owned fertilizer company.

Accompanied yesterday by Supardi, the president of PT Asuransi
Expor Indonesia, Suardin read the commitment and a list of action
plans at the end of a one-day seminar on environmental management
which was attended by 117 of the 186 state-owned companies.

The seminar was organized by PT Surveyor Indonesia, which
recently began cooperation with two United Kingdom-based
accreditation agencies for quality and environment management
systems. Surveyor Indonesia now provides consultation services
for the management systems and has the right to issue
certifications to companies.

State Minister of Environment Sarwono Kusumaatmadja said he
hoped more companies would issue these services in the future
under the government's coordination.

Sarwono said the commitment of the state-owned companies was
"a new landmark" and "very encouraging," particularly with the
presence of the Director General of the Promotion of State-owned
Companies under the Ministry of Finance, Martiono Hadianto.

"I hope that this is the beginning of a new phase (of
environmental awareness) among business entities which have a
large influence," said Sarwono.

Martiono told reporters earlier that the Ministry of Finance
supports the effort of voluntary compliance with environmental
standards, "although the implementation will depend on the
resources of each company."

Sarwono stressed that the international standards,
particularly the ISO 14000 certification, which states that a
company has met the requirements of an environmental management
system, are not mandatory.

"With these standards there are no rules or sanctions...but
nobody will buy your goods if you fail to follow," he said.

The action plans include steps to maintain profit through
environmentally sound practices by seeking clean production
strategies, aiming towards "zero emission" of pollutants and
efforts to produce environmentally-friendly goods.

The Director of Finance of Surveyor Indonesia, Toga Sitompul,
said many businesses used to regard environmental campaigns as
"meaningless hysterical shouting."

"Others understood but did not know what to do, and still
others thought that complying with the demands would involve huge
costs in changing their production processes."

"But (complying with environmental standards) is the only way
to survive," Sarwono said.

An executive of another state-owned fertilizer, PT Pupuk
Kaltim, said the company's three factories in Bontang, East
Kalimantan, may be ready to qualify for the ISO 14000
certification.

"Since 1984 we have applied new technologies to reduce the
level of our pollutant, ammonia, from the middle of the
production process," said Sutarman H., the company's technical
chief.

Sutarman said the level can be reduced from 0.75 kilograms of
ammonia per ton of fertilizer production, which is the maximum
level permitted by the government, to 0.4 kilograms. (anr)