ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

CASE STUDY 2

Case Studies on Implementation of ISO 14001 (clause 4.3.1) in Parquet and

Fiberboard Companies.

1.0 Introduction

Everyone recognizes the need for environmental protection. The environmental

problems have expanded from local, regional to global level. Resource consumption
poses serious threats to human health and to the stability of ecosystem.

Industry is one of the most important sources of environmental problem. This is due
to human society that depends heavily on industrial products to sustain their living
standard. Industrialization has contributed to the depletion of our air, water, and soil
quality. As a result, environmental regulations have been developed to control
emissions to air, water and land. In Malaysia for example, Environmental Quality Act
(EQA) 1974 has been introduced to control and minimized the environmental
problem caused by any person or organisation.

The increase in awareness among the public and organizations, has created a demand
to the development of standards, among those is the Environmental Management
System (EMS). They provide tools that can be applied to all parts, or any single part
of any organization in order to minimize the environmental impact from their
activities.

The standards in general are established to ensure sustainable development where

they provide guidance and methods for organisations to act in order to achieve a better
environmental performance.

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2.0 Literature review

2.1 A brief history of ISO 14001

The term “sustainable development” has been introduced in 1987 by a report entitled
Our Common Future. The report has called industries to develop effective
environmental management system.
In 1989, the United Nations has decided to organize a conference known as the ‘Earth
Summit’. This has become the beginning of ISO involvement. The year after, ISO has
formally established a Strategic Advisory Group on the Environment (SAGE) to make
recommendations regarding international standards for the environment.

Thus in 1993, Technical committee 207 (TC) was establish to develop and produce
the standards proposed by SAGE and to investigate the possibility of developing more
related and supporting standards.

The first EMS was introduced April 1992. It is called BS 7750, which is published by
British Standards Institution. The introduction of this standard has draw interest of
many countries to develop an environmental managements system by adopting this
standard.

Due to consumer demand, for an internationally recognized EMS standard, ISO

14001 has been introduced in 1996 in Malaysia. Since its introduction, the demand for
certification against the standard is ever increasing.

2.2 ISO 14001- Environmental management system.

The management model adopted by ISO 14000 is from Deming model. Deming
model stressed that management should be carried out using cycle of Plan, Do, Check
and Act (Figure 2.1 and 2.2). The ISO 14001 environmental management system
specification is structured along these frameworks and as stated in ISO 14004 Guide
of Environmental Management System (EMS) is guided by the following principles:
Principle 1 - Commitment and policy
Principle 2 – Planning

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Principle 3 – Implementation
Principle 4 – Measurement and evaluation
Principle 5 – Review and improvement

Figure 2.1 and 2.2: Deming Model and ISO14001 Main Principles

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 2.3 Potential Benefit on Implementing ISO 14001

ISO 14001 is an internationally recognized standard for environmental management

systems. Conformance to the standard may help the organisations to remain
competitive in the marketplace. For many organisations, the most influence factor for
them are that both, their competitors and customers, are seeking recognition and
beginning to demand conformance to ISO 14001 requirement.

By implementing an Environmental Management System (EMS) in accordance with

the ISO14000 standards the benefits includes:
• Identifying areas for reduction in energy and other resource consumption,
• Reducing environmental liability and risk,
• Helping to maintain consistent compliance with legislative and regulatory
requirements,
• Benefiting form regulatory incentives that reward companies showing
environmental leadership through certified compliance with an internationally
recognized EMS standard,
• Preventing pollution and reducing waste,
• Responding to pressure from customers and shareholders,
• Improving community goodwill,
• Profiting in the market for "green" products,
• Respond to insurance company pressure for proof of good management before
pollution-incident coverage is issued,
• And demonstrating commitment to high quality

2.4 Example of company with ISO 14001

2.4.1 Example 1

This company is an integrated wood industry company, located in Indonesia. At

present the company manages over 710,000 hectares of natural forest and 43,000
hectares of industrial timber plantations. The company also has two plywood
factories with 250,000m3 total production capacity per year and two Medium

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Density Fiberboard (MDF) factories with a total production capacity of 200,000m3
per year. It exports over 85% of its product to more than 15 countries in 5 continents.
Plywood production consists of the following main processes:

• Bucking

• Gluing

• Sanding

• Peeling

• Pressing

• Finishing

• Drying

• Trimming

Reasons for action

The division realized that plywood production has environmental impacts, inter alia
forest preservation and air quality. To avoid negative environmental impacts from
production and secondary processes, management decided to implement ISO 14001.
Apart from that, ISO 14001 is also used to help the division formulate it policies and
objectives in fulfilling legal requirement.

Programmes of environmental improvement were established and followed up by

training and campaigning in order to enhance awareness and care at all levels of
personnel. Procedures were documented to direct the implementation of the programs
in the field, which in turn were followed up by an internal environmental management
audit system.

The main expenses of the implementation of EMS-ISO 14001 involved consultation,

document preparation, external and internal training, campaigns on environmental
awareness and certification. The total cost of implementation was approximately
US$45,000 (not including investment costs).

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Lessons Learnt

• Implementation of ISO 14001 strengthened the company's commitment to

environmental and waste management.

• Being ISO 140001 certified increased community support of the division's

work in its’ region.

2.4.2 Example 2: Copley Square Hotel

A prominent hotel created an aggressive environmental program that provides a

foundation for ISO 14001 registration. The hotel is an historic one with an upscale
clientele. Their aggressive approach to reducing their impact on the environment
helped them identify many ongoing benefits. The major benefit areas were: recycling,
energy use reduction, and water use reduction.

Energy Use Reduction

• Install compact fluorescent bulbs in guest room table lamps and hanging lamps:
predicted payback equal to 1.81 years.

• Install compact fluorescent bulbs in back areas, which are lit 24 hours: savings equal
to U$59.57 per bulb.

• Remind employees to turn off all energy using devices that are not being used: no
estimate of savings.

Water Use Reduction:

• Installing toilets with 1.5-gallon capacity, replacing ones with 3.5 gallon capacity
will save U$3,276 and 430,000 gallons annually.

• Showerheads of greater efficiency will saveU$6,546 and 859,000 gallons annually.

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• Guest have been offered the option of reusing their towels and linens when staying
more than one night. Projected savings are $4,000 annually.

This case includes savings that are well known and some that are innovative. Some
of the reasons the program has been successful are:

• Everyone in the hotel participates in the program and can contribute from within
their job responsibilities. Thus, the power of each individual to contribute in a
positive way is harnessed.

• Small savings are as important as big ones. This recognizes that small savings add
up and creates a culture that values contributions at all levels of the organization and
of any size. The cumulative effect of many small acts of environmental impact
reduction may not be quantifiable, but it may be significant.

3.0 Malaysia Specific Case Studies

Today, a successful company needs to establish a reputation for quality, cost and good
delivery and also good quality of product and services while taken into account the
environmental aspects. Environmental credibility has becoming a factor in national
and international competitiveness. The market pressures also are calling for a better
understanding of the environmental cost and benefits of products and services.

Therefore, in this study, companies producing fiberboard and parquet have been
chosen as modules for implementing an Environmental Management System in order
to achieve certification of ISO 14001.

3.1 Case study 1

Company X was established in 1996 in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan and produce product
called parquet. It manufactures premium quality of parquet using solid wood from
Hevea plantation (rubber wood). But mostly the wood used in this company are PB
200/PB 300 series Hevea clones and others type of wood like oak, beech and hard
maple

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This company has exported its product to Europe, Australia, Hong Kong, China,
South Korea, Japan, Ukraine and Russia. In Malaysia, the company is actively
promoting its factory finished parquet range both for residential and commercial
grades to developers, and individual house owners.

The main characteristics of their products (parquet) are:

• Versatile
It can be used almost anywhere at house or office. It can also be applied to
walls as wall panels to transform the whole ambience of a dull familiar
looking room into a warm, elegant and luxurious. It also can be placed on
the ceiling to become unique and sophisticated then other man-made
materials.
• Reliable
This engineered product is thoroughly reliable as the tongue and groove on
all four sides provides precision fittings. In addition the UV cured acrylic
lacquer, which is, solvent free, not only seals the natural beauty of the Top
Layer wood but also adds to its strength and wear resistance.
• Safe
The wood used for flooring is treated with Borax/Boric acid and does not
contain PCP (pentachlorophenol). Together with the use of E-1 grade
adhesives (low formaldehyde emission) is a save product.

In order to obtain their quality standard, this company also followed some
specifications such as shown below in Table 1, which it has six types of species and
colour such as Hevea Natural, Hevea Stain, Hevea Rustic, Beech, Oak and Hard
Maple and nine standard specifications must be followed as below:

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 Table 3.1: Standard of specifications
Length 2200mm or 1200mm
Width 202mm
Thickness 14mm
Moisture content 8%+/-2%
Finish 5 coats of UV Acrylic lacquer
Structure of finish Fine texture
Materials used:
Top layer Species Hevea, Beech, Oak or Hard Maple
Core layer Species Hevea
Bottom layer Species Spruce, Pine or Hevea

3.2 Case study 2

A company producing fiberboard has been taken as a module for implementing an

Environmental Management System in order to achieve certification of ISO 14001.
The fiberboard is marketed globally to Europe, Middle East, Asia, Africa and North
America. This international trading of product has seen the need for this company to
have an international recognition to remain competitive in the market.

The fiberboard (medium density fiberboard) are made from rubber wood (Hevea
brasiliensis) obtain from the companies plantation area. The woods taken are from a
sustainable plantation area where this is one of the companies initiative of zero
burning and conservation of the environment. The production of fiberboard in this
company is fully automated to ensure accuracy and optimal efficiency. The fiberboard
produce is in the range of 2.5 mm to 32mm in thickness with various lengths and
widths to satisfy all kinds of applications.

The process starts from receiving raw log, cutting log into chips, washing, heating,
refine, and drying of chips, matforming from fiber, hot pressing, cutting, sanding,
cutting into desirable size until the last process of packaging.

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The energy provided to produce steam and drying of the chips and fibers are produce
in an energy plant in the factory area itself. The fuel used is from waste materials of
the log – bark and saw dust. This is an alternative way to reduce waste to be dispose
to the landfill.

3.3 Methodology

There is no standard technique or approach for determining significant impacts.

Strictly, ISO 14001 does not require use of any enumerated criteria in determining
significance. This way, each organization or company can apply any appropriate
criteria that are relevant to their activities, products, services or process in identifying
significant impacts.

3.3.1 Case study 1

For the first approached for processing of parquet, identification of aspect and impact
in every process of production starts from the arrival of raw material to the departure
of product from factory are made. Then, in identifying significant impact, a scoring
method has been used and the scores is classified according to the range of
significance as follow:
“Very significant”, V>45
“Moderate”, 20<M> 44
“Less significant”, 5<L> 19

Besides that, this method also consists of five criteria in order to assess the significant
environmental impacts. The key criteria are:
• Scale of impact
• Severity of impact
• Duration of impact
• Condition of impact
• Legislation and regulation

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Figure 3.1: Step of Identify Environmental Aspect and Impact

Preliminary Identify Environmental Aspect and Impact

In Parquet Processing

Using a scoring system and depends on the

Criteria that has been chosen

Make a priority referring to their scores

Divide them into three categorized

From “very significant”, “moderate” and “less significant”

Examples
Calculation

Example on calculation:
Activity/Process: Planning (Top Layer) Cutting and clearing the sides of wood
Environmental Aspect: Produce of solid waste and saw dust (Planning Process)
Significant Environmental Impact: Air emission Priority: “very significant”

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Example of description phase:
Scale of Impact
Score Description

1 On site only

3 Site vicinity, regional

5 Very large geographical region, global

impact
Total scores = Addition of every scores in each criteria X legislation score

Environmental Aspects and Impacts that comes under “Very significant” category.
No Aspects Significant Impact
PP03 Produce of solid waste and saw dust Air emission
(Planning Process)
PP13 Emission of smoke (Boiler) Air emission
PP03 Produce of solid waste and saw dust Occupational Safety and Health
(Planning Process) risk
PP11 Probability to cause leakage Occupational Safety and Health
(Lacquering Process) risk
PP09 Probability to cause incidents (Venier Occupational Safety and Health
Laying) risk
PP06 Produce coarse and fine dust (Splitting Air Emission
Process)
PP02 Generation of Noise during cutting Occupational Safety and Health
process (KALFASS Process) risk
PP13 Emission of smoke (Boiler) Air emission

Conclusion

One of the most difficult and misunderstood elements in the ISO 14001 standards is
(Clause 4.3.1) Environmental Aspect and Impact. This also causes by no specific
method or approach can be used to identify. So, this research has presented a method

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to identify and evaluate significance of environmental aspects and impacts to meet
ISO 14001 EMS requirements or improve an EMS. It was qualitative method. But,
there are some weaknesses of this method, which are:
• Does not evaluate employee’s concern
• Does not identify the corporate standards compliance status
• Only consider environmental criteria not include business criteria

According to the identification aspect and impact, it is observed that there are some
issues of concern. The issues are:
• Air emission
• Noise pollution
• Occupational and Safety risk

There are some difficulties faced which occurred during the research. The difficulties
are:
• Lack of time to identify all element of an ISO 14001
• Lack of information to identify aspects and evaluate impacts
• No expertise with any method to identify environmental aspect and impact

Recommendations

Before trying to develop and implement an environmental management system, there

are some essential steps should be considered.

• Define the scope of the EMS to be developed

• Preliminary Criteria

• Gap Analysis

• Preliminary Plan

• Project Management

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In developing a method for identifying significant impacts, it is suggested that both
quantitative and qualitative methods should be incorporated into one. The quantitative
method will prioritize the impacts according to rankings system while the qualitative
method will give quick overview for what is significant.

3.3.2 Case study 2

Another method has also been introduced here for the next case study that is for the
production of fibreboard. The next method are introduced to give a different approach
and idea of how to bring out the documentation of implementing ISO 14001
especially in identifying environmental aspect and impact where this is the critical and
most important part in implementing ISO 14001.

This method also identifies aspect and impact in every processing line. However, in
this method, main issues of pollution are identified from the impact. In the production
of wood base product, the impacts identified are usually the same. Therefore, the main
impact issues identified in the processing line are:
- Air pollution
- Noise pollution
- Land pollution and waste disposal issue.

Here, every issue are managed differently using either quantitative or qualitative
method in identifying significant impact. The method chosen are based on the
availability of baseline data (e.g. dust emission monitoring, waste production data,
noise monitoring) and further baseline data that can be carried out by the company.

Significant air pollution impact are identified using a scoring method (quantitative)
with a risk index of 1- 45 and level of impact as shown below:
- Insignificant
- Tolerable
- Moderate
- Significant
- Most significant

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In this method, more than five criteria are looked into compared to the first method.
Examples of criteria added are:
-Probability of occurrence
-Community concern
-Current control
-Awareness of workers

Example of discription phase in criteria is:

Probability of occurrence.
Scale Level of impact and description phase
1 Very unlikely to occur
5 Likely to occur during normal operation
7 Normal occurrence during operation

Scores from every criterion are added and are put in action according to the risk
index.

The significant impact of noise pollution, land pollution and waste disposal issues are
identified using qualitative method. Its significant is determined by the baseline data
obtain where the activity that causes the most impact to the environment are taken as
most significant. Another significant impact that has been identified indirectly from
the identification of impact of activity is health and safety of workers.
Overall significant impacts identified are:

Significant impact
Air pollution
Emission from chimney
Emission of dust from storage of energy plant
Dust emission from debarking in drum
Noise pollution
Noise from process line of production
Land pollution and waste disposal issue
Generation of excess wood base waste as burned material in energy plant

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 Disposal of fly ash
Safety and health of workers

In this second method, the legislation involved is determined separately compared to

the first method.

Conclusion

1. Air pollution issue

From air pollution issue, the characteristics taken to obtain significant impact are
taken from ISO 14004 – Environmental Management Guideline and Specifications.
However, the categories inside every character are made based on this company
situations during processing activity. To have a better scoring method, this
company could add other categories such as financial availability, effect of impact
to image of the company, past history of accidents, potential nuisance and other
characteristics. In this study, these characters are not considered because it can only
be determine by the company’s management. The scoring method also can be
better if the characters are more specific.

2. Noise pollution issue

This issue has to be looked into seriously because it exceeds the regulation limit.
It has been identified that the problem comes from the running machine.
According to regulation limit, the limit exposure to noise for workers working in
factory area is 90dB and they cannot be expose continuously for more than 8
hours (FMA). However in identifying significant activity in this issue, the only
data obtained as baseline to guide level of noise produce from this company is
boundary-monitoring data.

3. Land pollution and disposal of waste issue

This issue is not a big issue as air and noise pollution because in overall, it
complies with the regulation level. Activities that come under this issue are
properly disposed and some of it are reused and recycled. Generally, the company

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 has actually implement good environmental management practices especially in
reusing the waste produce.

4. Legal and other requirement

After identifying legal requirement involve in the processing line, the regulatory
involve are:
1. Factories and Machinery Act and Regulations (FMA), amendments up to
April 2001.
2. Environmental Quality Act and Regulations (EQA), amendments up to
February 2001
3. Occupational Health and Safety Act and Regulations (OSHA),
amendments up to January 2000

The identification aims to make sure that all legislation involve are complied by the
company. The lack of knowledge or understanding of any regulation does not absolve
an organization from the responsibility of complying with regulations. A lack of
compliance can seriously affect the financial well being of the organization and
individuals within the organization. Therefore, it is an important factor to make sure
that this factory looked into every detail of the legislation to avoid factor that will
affect profitability of the company.

3.4 Conclusion of main findings

4 main issues that has been identified from processes of fiberboard are:
1. Air pollution issue
2. Noise pollution issue
3. Land pollution and waste disposal issue
4. Health and safety issue

Most significant impact from each issue are also identified that is:
1. Dust problem
2. Noise which exceeds regulation limit
3. Reduction of excess waste
4. Creating awareness on health and safety to workers

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Most significant identified impacts are from:
1. Emission of dust from chimney
2. Noise from production line machines
3. Generation of wood base waste
4. Generation of fly ash from energy plant
5. Safety and health of workers during work

3.5 Overall Conclusion

1. From both the method the most issue identified are air pollution and safety and
health. However, in the second method, there are other issues that comes under
significant impact which are, noise pollution, land pollution and waste disposal
issue.
2. In identifying significant impact, the more criteria added the better evaluation of
an activity could be done.
3. If baseline data are to be used, the baseline data must be of the latest and variety.
4. Both methods that have been introduced can be change depending on the
company itself. The main priority is to make sure that the company reduce their
environmental impacts and give a better environmental performance.

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