Abstract
M.B.A.
"There has been an increased concern regarding environmental issues in the
international community during the last couple of decades. Whereas nongovernmental
organisations have played an important role in drawing attention
to environmental impacts caused by industrial activities, governments and
international organisations have responded by promulgating increasingly
stringent legislation" (Hall, 1998:3).
As Hall emphasised in the above statement more pressure is placed on
international competing organisations to prove to the international community
that they are committed to positive environmental performance. This is
normally done through the implementation of an integrated environmental
management system, such as the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS)
ISO 14001 (1996) system, followed by third party certification.
A decision was made by the Billiton Board that all its subsidiaries would
implement an integrated, internationally accepted environmental management
system. To ensure that the same standard applies to all its operations it was
decided that all subsidiaries must implement the SABS ISO 14001 (1996)
environmental management system, coupled with third party certification.
Samancor, is a subsidiary of Billiton, who owns operations all over the world.
Thus individuals at each Samancor plant was tasked with SABS ISO 14001
(1996) implementation and certification. Five of the plants already received
SABS ISO 14001 (1996) certification and Palmiet Ferrochrome is currently in
the process of developing and implementing the SABS ISO 14001 (1996)
standard. The aim of the dissertation is to determine if the implementation of SABS ISO
14001 (1996), as an integrated environmental management system would
ensure environmental legal compliance in the Samancor group.
The different Samancor plants are not only pressurised to become SABS ISO
14001 (1996) certified by the parent company, Billiton, but also by its
customers seeing that most of Samancor's products are exported and sold on
the international market. As a result of these pressures the company is actively
engaged in a dynamic integrated environmental management plan, which deals
with all aspects of air, water, ground and solid waste pollution.