ISO 14000 Standards and Environmental Performance Index: A ...

ISO 14000 Standards and Environmental Performance Index:
A Case Study of Leading Steel Mills in India
Sharmistha Banerjee
Reader, Department of Business Management
University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India
Email: sharmisthabanerjee@hotmail.com
And
M. Ruhul Amin
Professor, School of Business
Bloomsburg University, Pennsylvania, USA
Email: mamin@bloomu.edu
ABSTRACT
Appreciation of the gravity of environmental problems and related issues had been slow
worldwide. It had perhaps been slower in India. The popularity as well as awareness of
the ISO 9000 standards in India has gained a foothold in the last three decades, presently
industrial development in India is seriously concerned with issues relating to
sustainability as specified in ISO 14000. The standards seek how organizations minimize
the adverse impact of the production processes on the environment, i.e., air, water, land,
noise, and the whole ecology. In this paper several indices which are part of ISO 14000
standards were used for comparative analysis of the environmental performance and an
index suggested. Secondary published data from five large steel plants of India were
collected and this index tested. The longitudinal and comparative data on the indices
provide trends towards effective environmental management. The implications of the
trends and their ramifications for the ecological policies in general and the steel sector of
the manufacturing in particular are discussed in the paper. This index is not only an
internal tool for environmental management but also necessary for sustainable
stakeholder satisfaction. The paper highlights some of the initial efforts of a handful of
public as well private-sector steel manufacturing companies to 'go green'.