Effectiveness of ISO 14001 in the South African chemical industry

The chemical industry is one of the important industries in the South African industrial base, continuously being pressured to operate in an environmental friendly manner. Business with a good environmental practice in the South African chemical industry has become a key aspect for investors, customers and other stakeholders. In response to this challenge, chemical companies have implemented Environmental Management Systems into their businesses and getting certified to the various international standards. The ISO 14001 has been the leading international standard with the key purpose of progressively controlling environmental impacts while ensuring that objectives and targets are met. In this paper, the benefits of implementing and integrating ISO 14001 in the chemical industry are discussed. ISO 14001 gives the competitive advantage in the marketplace and the company benefits economically covering the whole organization's scope that including its products, operations, services, facilities, activities and transportation. South African companies have implemented the ISO 14001 EMS as a result of their response to the demand from customers and market for higher environmental reliability. This paper aims at educating about effectiveness of implementing ISO14001 standard in the companies that manufacture chemicals.