Environmental Management for small Sized Indian Enterprises

in Manaufacturing
Sanjeev Kumar, Somnath Chattopadhyaya, Vinay Sharma
Abstract
Despite the growing interest in environmental management practices research to date has typically analyzed a limited
range of these practices and used traditional data sources. The data used in this study comprised environmental performance
data from small manufacturing industries. Recent research obtained data on the current practices and experiences of Indian
small sized enterprises of manufacturing and environmental management. Traditionally, when evaluating supplier
performance, industries have considered factors such as price, quality, flexibility etc. However, with environmental
pressures increasing, many industries have begun to consider environmental issues and the measurement of their suppliers
environmental performance. Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing and Product Recovery also has become an
obligation to the environment and to the society itself, enforced primarily by governmental regulations and customer
perspective on environmental issues. Currently environmental management is at the forefront of small sized enterprises,
especially in certain sectors where its presence is mandatory in order to operate in business. Although small enterprises in
certain sectors are catching up on their larger counterparts in reducing their environmental impacts, which are mainly due to
supply chain demands, statistics clearly show that the majority of small manufacturing industries are not incorporating
formal environmental management system into their businesses. As a result the majority of small manufacturing enterprises
must rely on the help and assistance of external environmental consultants to assist them in taking account of their
environmental impacts.
Keywords: Environmental management, Manufacturing, Indian industry, ISO 14001, Green supply chain

1 Introduction
During the industrial revolution, environmental issues
were not addressed when designing and manufacturing
products. However, in the last decade or so, Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing and Product Recovery
has become an obligation to the environment and to the
society itself, enforced primarily by governmental regulations and customer perspective on environmental issues.
Environmentally conscious manufacturing is concerned
with developing methods for manufacturing new products
from conceptual design to final delivery and ultimately to
the end-of-life disposal such that the environmental standards and requirements are satisfied. Product recovery, on
the other hand, aims to minimize the amount of waste sent
to landfills by recovering materials and parts from old or
outdated products by means of recycling and remanufacturing (including reuse of parts and products) (Askiner
Gungor, Surendra M. Gupta, 1999). With increasing government regulation and stronger public awareness in
environmental protection, industries today simply cannot
ignore environmental issues if they want to survive in the
global market. In addition to complying with the environmental regulations for selling products in certain countries,
industries need to implement strategies to voluntarily reduce
the environmental impacts of their products. Environmental
management is becoming more and more important for
corporations as the emphasis on the environmental protection by organizational stakeholders, governments, custommers, employees, competitors and communities, keeps increasing.( Amy H.I. Lee, He-Yau Kang, Chang-Fu Hsu,
Hsiao-Chu Hung, 2009). Environmental management
practices are the techniques, policies and procedures a
industries uses that are specifically aimed at monitoring and
controlling the impact of its operations on the natural
environment (Frank Montabon, Robert Sroufe, Ram Narasimhan, 2007). Currently, industries are trying to understand
the benefits of a proactive approach to environmental policies. Industries

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Industries may become environmentally proactive in

anticipation of more efficient utilization of resources and
improved corporate image. (Frank Montabon, Robert Sroufe
, Ram Narasimhan, 2007). All industries have management
systems in place to ensure efficient and smooth running of
certain aspects of their business. Environmental management systems are designed to facilitate the management of
all environmental impacts associated with industries activities in the aim of continuous improvement of environmental performance. The part of the overall management
system that includes organisational structure, planning activities, responsibilities, practices, procedures, processes and
resources for developing, implementing, achieving, reviewing and maintaining the environmental policy. (Stephen
Burke, W.F. Gaughran, 2006). Number of large sized enterprises has already implemented Environmental Management System certified to ISO 14001 and/ or the ecomanagement and auditing system (EMAS). As part of ISO
14001/EMAS specifications, these manufacturers must, and
have been seen to, make specific demands and targets of
environmental performance and assurance which suppliers,
i.e., small sized enterprises, must meet. In order to remain
ahead of the competition, small sized enterprises in these
supply chains must obtain these appropriate ISO environmental standards before even being considered as contenders. There are also certain circumstances where there is
a legal requirement for having an Environmental Management Systems (EMS). Despite these legal requirements and
supply chain pressures on manufacturing small sized
enterprises, statistics clearly show that the majority of them
are not incorporating EMSs in their industries. Research has
and is being carried out on small sized enterprises, their
experiences and uptake of EMSs, highlighting the current
practices, barriers and drivers in an effort to overcome this
poor participation.

2 Literature Review
Environmental problems are an area of steadily increasing concern. Environmental management factors are rapidly emerging as an important issue for businesses to consider. The ISO 14001 standard specifies a series of requirements that must be met by the environmental management system (EMS) of an industry, that is, by the system
used to organize and coordinate all the environmental activities and initiatives that the industry develops. This
standard is intended to be useful to those industries that
wish to become involved with a more proactive environmental management, and its implementation allows the
industry to obtain a certificate of compliance that recognizes
that the EMS meets the established requirements. (Javier
Gonza lez-Benito, Oscar Gonza lez-Benito, 2008). People/
consumer is increasingly aware of the strong links between
the economy and the environment these days. Exploiting the
synergies between the two is essential to maximize both
well-being and economic growth. As a result, many countries have started to enforce environmental legislations and
regulations for controlling the use of products, processes
and wastes that may be detrimental to the environment.
(Amy H.I. Lee, He-Yau Kang, Chang-Fu Hsu, Hsiao-Chu
Hung, 2009). Industry/organizations have attempted to
respond by developing products and services that, for
example, use less packaging, reduce pollution and/or
decrease energy consumption. Even though businesses have
been blamed for many environmental problems, there is still
little guidance on how they can reduce their impact. A
potentially effective way of managing an industries environmental policy is by linking it closely with the activities
of the purchasing function. Diffusing environmental management techniques along the supply chain can be an appropriate method of enhancing the environmental performance of an industry (Paul Humphreys, Ronan McIvor,
Felix Chan, 2003).

3 Some Other Current Environmental

Problems
India as well as world faces many environmental legacies. These include how to deal with greenhouse gases
that have already been emitted into the atmosphere, how to
reduce emissions that are still occurring and what to do with
resources and waste products that have been used and then
dispersed into landfill sites or just left to decay (or not).
Large amounts of heavy metals such as lead have been
released and dispersed into the environment from industrial
processes. The worlds resources are finite. Using limited
resources and releasing waste into the environment can
affect air and water quality and cause longer term problems.
It is suggested therefore that planning for renewability is
essential. (Maurice Bonney, MohamadY.Jaber, 2010).
World problems, often inter-related, include:
- Global warming
- Shortages of resources
- Globalisation based on cheap labour and transportation
systems.
Disasters such as tsunamis, floods, cyclones and earthquakes.

4 Small Sized Enterprises

Environmental Practice & Performance

Environmental performance is a concern of managers

due to reasons ranging from regulatory and contractual
compliance, to public perception and competitive advantage. Some literature offers insight on potential patterns of
supply chain relations for improving environmental performance. Investment in these programs can be great and
pressures to perform environmentally are great, improved
environmental performance from these practices may not be
guaranteed (Qinghua Zhua, Joseph Sarkis, 2004).Thus,
further understanding the environmental practice & performance is needed, especially for small sized enterprises in
countries that need to balance a growing economy and environmental protection such as India. Also economic
performance is typically the most important driver for
enterprises that wish to implement environmental management practices, especially for enterprises in developing
countries such as India. It has been argued that success in
addressing environmental issues may provide new opportunities for competition, and new ways to add value to core
business programs. Small sized enterprises are under the
most strain from modern business demands from having to,
comply with existing and upcoming legislation, reduce
costs, meet consumer demands, remain competitive and
maintain a good corporate image. Whatever small sized
enterprises can avoid and get away with is usually the
predominant feeling, keeping costs and headache at a minimum, especially when implementing voluntary environmental standards. It was found that small numbers of the
small sized enterprises were failing to take practical measures to reduce their impact on the environment and having
an environmental policy. It was also found that as the value
of raw materials, and price of waste disposal increased
however, the incentives for short-term waste minimization
and long-term Environmental Management Systems
(EMSs) increased, purely for commercial reasons. (Stephen
Burke, W.F. Gaughran, 2006).

5 Benchmarking Questionnaire
The Competitive Strategies and Best Practices Benchmarking Questionnaire was developed. The questionnaire
consists of sixteen questions.
Tab. 1 The Comparison
S.No.
Statement
Score
1. Use of raw material ,product & resources
3
2. Use of water & waste water
2
3. Prevention & reduction of waste stream
2
4. Recycling & selective separation of waste
1
5. Air pollution, dust & odours
2
6. Reduction & control of noise & vibration
2
7. Storage of products
3
8. Mobility & transport of employees and goods 3
9. Green planning for products & services
2
10. Health & safety in the workplace
2
11. Prevention of environmental accidents
2
12. Environmental info. (internal & external)
2
13. Comm. with suppliers & subcontractors
3
14. Neighborhood (dialogue & implication)
3
15. Environmental management practices
2
16. Motivation of managers & employees
3
The competitive strategy questions designed by (S.
Burke, W.F.Gaughran, 2006). The questions aims to explore
possible near future developments in the competitive strategies of the industry by addressing their competitive prio-

55

rities, manufacturing objectives and action plans. Industry

was asked to rate the degree of implementation of each of
these practices on a five-point Likert scale (5 for excellent,
4 for very good, 3 for good, 2 for average & 1 for poor)
shown in table:1 & graph:1.

organisations need environmental performance measures.

Integrating environmental management techniques along
the supply chain is an appropriate method of enhancing the
environmental performance of an industry. The environmental performance of Small Sized Enterprises and their
long term commitment to managing their environmental
impacts must be increased and supported through simple,
effective and strategic support systems. Recycling helps
with cost savings via more efficient use of materials. Recycling can also improve an industries image, which may
help to improve sales growth.
Sanjeev Kumar
Research scholar
Department of Mechanical. Engg
I.S.M. University, Dhanbad
E-mail: sanjeevkg9@gmail.com ,
Mob: +91-8010266661
Somnath Chattopadhyaya
Associate professor
Department of ME&MME
ISM University, Dhanbad-826004, India
E-mail: somuismu@gmail.com,
Vinay Sharma
Associate professor
Department of Production Engg
BIT, Mesra (Ranchi)-835215
E-mail: vinay1970@gmail.com

Fig. 1 Graph-1

6 Discussion & Conclusion

Environmental issues are main concerns for any industries during its product design and development.
Environmental requirements are quickly becoming primary
priorities, even over economic benefits. Environmental
protection and sustainable development are getting more
and more attention in industry. Sustainability is traditionally
conceived in terms of environmental protection activities
such as cleaning up rivers, pollution reduction and elimination and reasonable exploitation of the worlds resources
(Modrak and Dima, 2010). Domestic regulatory pressures
from emissions laws and also take-back legislation will
influence eco-design and investment recovery practice
adoption in the supply chain, whereas supply chain and
market pressures will influence cooperative efforts and
green purchasing practices. From a more general legislative
and policy perspective, it is clear that strict regulations with
strict enforcement are important motivators and drivers for
industries to consider environmental issues through their
whole supply chains. However, their GSCM practice implementation, such as recycling and selective separation of
waste, green planning of products & services, use of water
& waste water, environmental management practices etc.
focusing on environmental concerns, is lagging. In most
cases these enterprises have scored less. So industry should
focus & more concentrate on use of waste water, prevention
& reduction of waste stream, recycling and selective
separation of waste, air pollution, green planning for products and services, environmental management practices.
GSCM has emerged as an important new archetype for
industries to achieve profit and market share objectives by
lowering their environmental risks and impacts and while
raising their ecological efficiency. However, GSCM &
green manufacturing is still a new concept. The adoption
rates shown in our investigation are still low. Some Indian
enterprises have recognized its importance and tried to put it
into practice, but most of these enterprises may lack
experience as well as necessary tools and management
skills. This study generally examines environmental performance. Environmental management is becoming increasingly important for organisations to consider. From
reducing pollution to meeting environmental regulations,

56

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