Environmental Management Systems And Their Applications In Turkey

Tez (Yüksek Lisans) -- İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, 1996Thesis (M.Sc.) -- İstanbul Technical University, Institute of Science and Technology, 1996Çevre sorunları toplumların gündemine 50' li yılların sonlarında girmeye başlamış, 1990 'lı yıllara gelindiğinde ise sorunların boyutları tartışılamaz şekilde büyümüştür. Çağdaş demokratik toplumlarda çok farklı görüşe sahip olan toplumsal kesimler bile çevreyi koruma konusunda uzlaşmaktadırlar. Çevre ile ilgili kavramlar, yavaş yavaş günlük hayatımızda sıkça duyacağımız kavramlar arasına girmekte ve artık ekonomik düzenlemelerde, planlarda çevre konusuna da bir yer verilmektedir. Tezimin ilk bölümünde çevre sistemi içerisindeki elemanlar ile bunlarla ilgili sorunları tanıtmaya ve ayrıca çevre koruma çalışmalarının mikro ve makro düzeyde ekonomiye olan etkilerinden söz etmeye çalıştım. Sanayi modern toplumlarda ekonominin temel taşıdır. insan ihtiyaçlarının çoğu ancak sanayinin ürettiği mal ve hizmetlerle karşılanabilmektedir. Çevrenin korunması ve çevresel kaynakların daha akılcı kullanılması, her kişi ve kuruluşun olduğu gibi sanayi kesiminin de ortak sorumluluğudur. Günümüzde modern tekneolojiler çevre kirliliğini azaltıcı, atıkları geri kazandırıcı prosesler uygulamakta ve çevre dostu ürünler üretmektedir. Çalışmamın 2. bölümü, özellikle Avrupa ve Amerika'daki sanayi kesiminin, "sürekli kalkınma" fikrini benimsemiş çevreye duyarlı çalışmalarını kapsamaktadır. En son uygulama bölümü ise Türkiye'deki sanayi kesiminin çevre koruma faaliyetleri ve çevre standartlarının uygulanabilmesi konusundaki düşüncelerini kapsayan araştırmayı içermektedir. Tezimin ikinci bölümü ise Avrupa ve Amerika'daki sanayi kesiminin bu tür çevre çalışmalarından örnekler bulunmaktadır. Tezimin 3. bölümünde, Türkiye'de sanayi kesiminin çağdaş üretim anlayışının getirdiği "Çevre Yönetim Sistemleri"ne uygun faaliyetlerde bulunup bulunmadığı araştırılmıştır. Sonuç olarak, Türkiye'de endüstriyel firmaların % 98 'in çevreye karşı duyarlı çalışmalar yaptıkları, ancak "Çevre Yönetimi Sistemi"nin gerektirdiği standartlar hakkında sanayi kesiminin henüz bilgi sahibi olmadığı ortaya konmuştur. Türkiye'de çevre koruma çalışmalarının, bu standartların gerektirdiği gibi yapılması için, önce konu ile ilgili eğitimin sanayi kesimine ve tüketiciye verilmesi gerekliliği araştırmanın en önemli bulgusu olarak saptanmıştır.Environmental management has become a very important issue for business organizations recently. There is no return to a simpler world where environmental impacts are limited to few considerations that are mostly economic in nature. Thus, business and industrial organizations must cope with an environment that is being polluted and adopt new ways for its protection. For example; when manufacturing a new product or buying land for expansion, business organizations must investigate the potential impacts on environment. They must also consider, new forms of organizational sutructures and processes that will enable them to respond to a changing environment in the long term. The traditional model of industrial activity is one in which raw materials are used by processes to produce products for people and then the waste material generated is disposed in some way. This present system of manufacturing should be changed radically. Such changes, however, call for new kinds of thinking and new strategies regarding the environment. For example, a new kind of manufacturing system must be totally integrated where consumption of energy and raw materials is optimized and waste generation is minimized. In addition to this, there must be more incentives for recycling, conservation, and alternative materials in comparison to present system which will cause problems for future generations. The disposal of waste is the big problem of all business in the world. Existing dumpsites that threaten human health and environment should be cleaned up by using the best technology available. The ultimate solution to this waste disposal problem, if possible, seems to be the one of not producing so much waste. This approach is called "waste minimization", and involves new strategies about waste material generation. This concept involves four points; 1- Prevention of waste generation at the source through redisegn of products, vix 2- Recycling or reuse of waste material to recover useful products, 3- Treatment of wastes, such as incineration to reduce toxicity, and 4- Disposal of remaining waste material in an appropriate manner. The success of many of these manufacturing strategies, particularly recycling, depends on consumer demand for recycled and easily disposable products. Thus, it caused the birth of the so called green marketing which involves environmentally sensitive products. The products in the green market include biodegradable products, recycled products, and more fuel-efficient cars and appliances. Consumers also are becoming concerned about the environment and these consumers are willing to buy environmentally sensitive products. Because the protecting environment has become an important issue for business organizations since 1980 's, they have begun to require industry-wide norms for green marketing in order to compare their environmental performance. The British Establishment of Standarts that has been working on environmental standards since 1990, decided to revise these standards in March 1992 and then published the specifications for Environmental System in 1994. BS 7750 is intended to be applicable to any kind of organization. The standard shares common management system principles with the well established and widely known Quality Assurance System BS 5750. The revised standard does not establish absolute requirements for environmental performance beyond compliance with applicable leqistation and regulation and so commitment to continuous improvement. In other words, BS 7750 requires organizations to adopt a documented and publicly available environmental policy. This states a clear commitment to a "continuous improvement" in environmental performance. The benefits to any business organizations making environmental management an integral part of their business and implementing environmental standards can be described simply as: 1) Improved market share: Many companies have tried to gain market share by labeling their product as "green" and promoting at least one environmentally redeeming feature they possess. 2) Immediate cost savings without large investment and avoidance of future costs: Costs are saved because of the enormous costs of environmental mishaps and waste disposal. 3) Improved employee morale: Employee morale and commitment can be affected by employers' environmental performance. 4) Ease of obtaining approvals: Increasingly, companies need government's environmental approvals to operate. The government can shut down companies' operations if they breach environmental regulations and permits. 5) Profiting from early learning curves: If business organizations learn how to integrate environmental protection into their management systems today, they can sell their knowledge tomorow and gain competitive advantage. To make environmental management system an intergal part of business organizations, managers must strive to: a) Identify the key environmental problems of their businesses correctly and provide direction to employees for solutions. b) Ensure that the identifed problems are prioritized and solved, using statistical and problem-solving tools and employee teams. c) Recognize employee efforts and results to protect the environment. d) Ensure that projects have full support through all management levels and across all department. e) Monitor, control, minimize, and prevent damaging environmental effects. Providing direction is critical. Virtually every human activity negatively affects the environment. Millions of products with unknown environmental effects were flooding the market, and dozens of plants were polluting. Employee office recycling programs are important and prioritization is necessary. A survey encompassing 81 manufacturing organizations has been conducted to study and elucidate environmental management practices in the Turkish manufacturing industry. XI The results of the survey can be summarized as below: 1- Ninety-eight percent of the organizations implement environmental management in some way. 2- Eighty-six percent of the organizations, that implement environmental management, process waste in their own refining establishment. This fact shows that the Turkish organizations tend to find a solution for the environmental problem not in the source but after it occurs. 3- Only 22.1 % of the organizations apply environmental standards. 4- The most important reasons for not applying environmental standards are that "the importance of environmental issues have not been understood properly" and "financial difficulties occur due to the application of environmental standards." 5- The obstacles to environmental management practices as reported by the organizations are summurized in order of importance : a. Insufficient education for environmental protection, b. Lack of technical knowledge, c. Inadequate legal structure, d. Insufficient technical infrastructure, and e. Financial difficulties. 6- Fifty-seven percent of the organizations design energy consumption minimizing projects and strategies. 7- A chi- square test with a confidence level of 95 % shows that there is relationship between energy saving projects and annual sales. Especially, the organizations with annual sales above one billion (1.000.000.000.000) TL. invest more for energy consumption projects than the other organizations. 8- No association can be found between foreign partnership and the application of environmental standards. 9- The Turkish legal structure is inadequate. In addition to this, there is a confusion in which departmant of government the legal authority is invested. 10- The results of the survey generally show that the environmental management practices in the Turkish Manufacturing organizations are in the infancy stage. xii 11- Financial difficulties and unfavorable economic conditions obstruct the investments for environmental management. The Turkish community has become already industrialized. An industralization, that does not take environmental problems into consideration, would cause a huge environmental pollution at this stage. For short and long terms, we present some proposals for the Turkish manufacturing industry. These are the following: 1- The research and development activities for environmental management should be increased in the short term. 2- Each organization in Turkey should investigate both direct and indirect impacts of their environmental damage in the long term. 3- Educational programs and seminars about environmental protection should be expedited. In addition to it, the manufacturing organizations should collaborate with universities and state agencies. 4- The Turkish legal structure needs to be modified so that the manufacturing industry will be required to apply environmental standards and to establish consistent environmental management strategies. 5- The organizations in Turkey need incentives to develop more innovative practices that will reduce their waste material. Because of that reason, the Turkish government should provide support and incentives to promote activities for environmental protection.Yüksek LisansM.Sc