Subject: ISO 14000 News and Views Volume 2 Number 11 (11) ISO 14000 News and Views Volume 2 Number 11 will be available Tuesday, June 10 at: http://www.lawinfo.com/law/ca/environmentallaw HEADLINE: CAN POLLUTERS POLICE THEMSELVES? Many state legislators believe businesses can and should run their own environmental audits. A lot of regulators and environmentalists disagree. The clergy believes confession is good for the soul. Therapists think self-analysis is healthy for the psyche. But environmental laws have never been predicated on faith that business and industry would see the light and clean up their acts without forceful legal prodding. So it's not surprising that federal and state regulators are now sparring over how to deal with repentant polluters who acknowledge their sins and ask the government to forgive them. Nobody doubts that it makes sense to encourage industry to assess the pollution it produces and clean up problems voluntarily. Across the country, however, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been resolutely challenging new laws that 20 or so state legislatures have enacted. Those measures give special blessing to factories and other facilities that conduct formal self-audits of the pollution that they're causing. HEADLINE: READ-RITE RECEIVES NATIONAL THAILAND ENVIRONMENTAL AWARD Read-Rite Corporation (Nasdaq: RDRT) today announced that Read-Rite (Thailand) Co. Ltd. has received the Thailand Prime Minister's Award for Outstanding Performance in Environmental Management. The Award was given in recognition of Read-Rite's industry leadership in "solving the problems and managing the quality of the environment" - demonstrated in 1996 when Read-Rite became the first company in Thailand and the worldwide disk drive industry to receive ISO 14001 Certification."We are honored that the government of Thailand has selected Read-Rite for this recognition and we remain committed to setting the highest standards for protecting the environment," said S. G. Tien, vice president of Read-Rite International. HEADLINE: DET NORSKE VERITAS SAFEGUARDS LIFE AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN KOREA Det Norske Veritas (DNV) is today the leading classification society for providing safety and environmental services for the shipping industry. Since its beginning 133 years ago in Norway DNV has grown to become the world largest lassification society in terms of turnover. Its activities are designed to meet the following actives of DNV: to safeguard life, property and the environment.'' HEADLINE: PT SURVEYOR INDONESIA STARTS ISO 14000 DIAGNOSIS Batam, May 9 (ANTARA) -- PT Surveyor Indonesia in Batam has started to conduct an initial diagnosis for awarding ISO 14000 certificates to 10 companies in Batam, under its short-term program ending in December 1997. HEADLINE: JAPANESE FIRM GETS ISO 14000 CERTIFICATION FOR GREEN OUTLOOK APART from having manufacturing procedures that ensure clockwork factory operation 24 hours a day, Matsushita Refrigeration Industries also has systems to recycle or reduce waste generated. Because of its efforts, the company was awarded the ISO 14000 certification, the green equivalent of the ISO 9000 series for quality management. HEADLINE: TOWARDS QUALITY ENVIRONMENT: MR. JOHN MARSDEN, ENVIRONMENTAL AUDITOR THE assessment of environment quality has assumed increasing importance. With awareness on eco-issues spreading quickly among the people and the enactment of legislation for protecting the environment, the need for a separate machinery to implement the laws has become imperative. The ISO 14000 series has been developed for environment management systems on the lines of the ISO 9000 series for quality systems, and can be used for third party audits and certification. In an interview with Business Line, Mr. John Marsden of Marsden Environmental International, UK, and a registered environmental auditor, spoke on the existence, operation and certification of an environmental management system (EMS) based on the ISO 14000 series, which is fast becoming a sine qua non in international business. HEADLINE: ISO 14000: EPA GETS MIXED MESSAGE FROM US COMPANIES The US EPA is hearing "mixed messages" from US firms about the agency's future stance on ISO 14000, a set of voluntary environmental management standards crafted by the International Standards Organization. The standards have spurred debate between some industries that don't want to meet additional reporting requirements, others that would like to earn an EPA seal of approval in tandem with ISO certification, and consultants eager to gain new business certifying companies. HEADLINE: ECO-QUALITY PRODUCTS IN MALAYSIA THE environment is no longer just a popular cause, it has become a fact of life. It is an increasing influence on the way people behave and think as voters, workers and consumers. Businesses ignore it at their peril. For the most enlightened of them, the environment could bring big profits; for the heedless, it will spell obsolescence. In open, globally-integrated economies, environmental quality standards in products, processes and services will affect competitiveness sooner or later. Few Malaysian companies, however, have acted on this fundamental actor in the global market. Instead, the vast majority of them have nothing to be environmentally proud about. Only six firms have been conferred with the international ISO 14000 certification up to the present. In Sirim Bhd's pilot project to find firms to certify over the second half of last year, only 32 qualified, and a mere four of them subsequently made the grade. HEADLINE: MALASIAN COMPANIES URGED TO STRIVE FOR ISO 14000 MALAYSIAN companies should not wait until the ISO 14000 international management systems standards becomes a legal requirement before adopting it, Science, Technology and the Environment Minister Datuk Law Hieng Ding said. "Industries will have to come up with a programme to work towards ISO 14000 as they are not facing the government in this aspect, but rather competition from the international market. "It may not be compulsory now, but we have to prepare for the eventuality," HEADLINE: COMPANIES WORLDWIDE ARE NUDGING INTO ISO'S 14000 SERIES STANDARDS The first five in the ISO 14000 series covering these standards have now been published. Like its predecessor the ISO 9000 series, the 14000 series was designed by the International Organization for Standardization for all industries worldwide. The aim is to help organizations manage and evaluate the environmental aspects of their operations without being prescriptive. The ISO 14000 series is supposed to: * Provide a platform for companies to demonstrate commitment to environmental protection. * Offer a means for management to pursue continual improvement in the environmental realm. * Provide a worldwide focus on environmental management. * Promote a voluntary consensus standards approach in the environmental area. * Harmonize national environmental rules, labels, and methods. * Promote environmental predictability and consistency. * Demonstrate commitment to moving beyond regulatory environmental performance compliance. * Minimize environmental trade barriers. Developers claim that the 14000 series will offer potential relief from conflicting environmental regulations around the world. In the short run, though, the new standard is the cause of debate between U.S. industry groups representing steel to chemicals that don't want to meet additional registration requirements, and a registration industry eager to gain new standards. HEADLINE: CHINA SETS UP ISO ENVIRONMENT STANDARDS COMMITTEE China established a committee today to promote the standards of the international standards organization (iso) in environment. the country has made some progress in spreading use of the standard, which is referred to as iso 14000. the establishment of the committee is to curb pollution and waste, and to cut tariff barriers in global trade. experts say that it will help enterprises control pollution and make better use of resources in production, while reducing the impact of human activities on the environment. headed by xie zhenhua, director of the state bureau of environmental protection, the committee is composed of officials from 33 central government departments including the state bureau of technical supervision, the state economic and trade commission, and the state planning commission. the committee was authorized by the state council, the country's highest governing body, to handle the issuing of iso 14000 certificates in environment. HEADLINE: GREEN IS GOOD IN BATTLE FOR CONTRACTS REGIONAL THAI COMPANIES FACE GROWING DEMANDS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION BANGKOK - Companies in Asia are being forced to work harder on antipollution measures as international agreements and changing business practices combine to raise environmental standards. Corporations ignoring this growing wave are likely to be cut out of contracts over coming years. Japanese manufacturers in Thailand have begun to market refrigerators and other products free of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) after Thailand became the first developing nation to eliminate use of CFCs. Some scientists have linked the gases to destruction of the Earth's protective ozone layer. HEADLINE: ISO 14000 POSES A CHALLENGE TO THE PLASTICS INDUSTRY The first five in the series of ISO 14000 Environmental Management System Standards are now published and companies worldwide are nudging into the ISO 14000 process. ISO 14000 presents some benefits and possible problems for plastics manufacturers. On the one hand, the standard offers a managerial tool for organizing environmental efforts. On the other hand, to get marketing benefits from the standard, companies may find themselves pressured into registration schemes of the sort they've encountered with ISO 9000. The Environmental Protection Agency is examining whether to offer some sort of incentives to those companies that comply with ISO 14000, but even that bonus has its down sides. HEADLINE: COKE BOTTLER WINS GREEN CERTIFICATION Thai Pure Drink Ltd, which bottles Coca-Cola in Thailand, is the world's first Coke bottling plant to achieve ISO 14001 certification. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ISO Consultants for Pakistan I am writing in response to an article in one of your issues of ISO 14000 News and Views. This article, titled ISO 14001 CONSULTANTS WANTED FOR PAKISTAN, hails from a Jawad Hassan, an Advocate from Hagler Bailly Pakistan. EMS Compliance Auditing Thank you for the excellent ISO 14000 Forum on EMS compliance auditing. As a member of the U.S.Technical Advisory Group to TC210 environmental performance evaluation (EPE) and site assesment have been very sensitive areas of discussion. ISO14000 does not audit for due dilligence to environmental regulations and in my opinion it is no accident the U.S.TAG to TC210 has biased its' efforts in favor of those industries who fear compliance audits. CLASSIFIEDS Vacancy for expert on African wetlands Trade Show Information Health Saftey and ISO 14001 Scope of ISO 14001 Pollution Prevention