Monday, July 26, 2004 Firms clueless, don’t want to spend for environmental management
MANY firms in Cebu do not practice environmental management because they do not want to spend for it, while others are unaware of the effects their operations have on the environment.
But a specialist in the field has warned that there may be a higher price to pay for not having an environmental management system (EMS).
“Pollution is the least priority for most companies,” said Alice Belen, managing consultant of Alexis Environmental Consultancy. “Some people don’t even know waste has a negative impact on the environment.”
Belen, currently the consultant for the EMS implementation of TMX-Philippines and Victorias Milling Company, said many Cebu companies also see environmental management as “purely cost” and do not see the long-term benefits.
She estimated that small firms will need from P500,000 to P1 million or more for an EMS. This includes the cost of installing the system and training employees to use it.
Costs
This might seem like a big amount, but Belen said this could save one “from fines and penalties with the DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources), communication and PR (public relations) costs if there are complaints, and social costs.”
One company in Cebu, she said, paid P2 million in penalties.
It is easy to rack up that amount. Bienvenido Lipa-yon, regional director of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) 7, an agency of the DENR, said the Clean Water Act prescribes fines of at least P10,000 not to exceed P200,000 a day per violation.
The Clean Air Act prescribes the penalty of at least P10,000 but not to exceed P100,000 per day per violation, he added.
Pollutive firms are chemical-intensive firms like electroplating companies; textile manufacturing because of the inking part; companies into painting, because of the use of volatile organic compounds; and those that discharge organic waste, like all types of food processing, fish canning, and manufacturing of sugar, alcohol and dried foods, said Belen.
Cement quarrying also creates pollution because of the dust it emits. But Belen said after cement plants modernized in the late 1990s, the pollution situation in Cebu is “a lot better now than before.”
According to Erasmo Villafañe Jr., chief of the pollution control division of the EMB 7, awareness of environmental management is growing.
Since the start of the Pollution Adjudication Board (PAB) sometime in 1987, the EMB 7 has endorsed over 60 cases in Central Visayas to the board for resolution.
“There were 12 to 15 cases a year in the late 1990s. But in the past three years, buotan na sila,” he said. (The companies have been behaving.)
Director Lipayon said pollution cases are endorsed to the PAB if, after initial warnings by EMB officials, polluters still don’t change their ways.
Common
Villafañe said a common violation is operating without an environmental compliance certificate (ECC), for which the maximum penalty is P50,000.
“For exceedence of standards, the PAB can order closure or fine, or both,” he added.
Since the EMB 7 started issuing ECCs in the region in 1992, some 3,000 to 4,000 ECCs have been issued, Villafañe said.
Belen said most firms in Cebu that have EMS are multinationals or local firms that sell to clients abroad. Some go further and get international certifications.
Certification will cost from $3,500 for small to medium-scale firms, up to $5,000 to $7,000 for medium to large-scale companies, she said.
At the end of 2003, there were 166 companies in the country certified to the International Standard ISO 14001, up 34 percent from the year before. CTL
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