بررسی منابع مدیریت زیست محیطی (ایزو 14001) در سایت های ساخت و ساز مهندسی عمران: یک مطالعه موردی از جامعه مادرید

In recent years, significant advances have been made in business organization and management. The growing demands of clients as well as the globalization of world markets are among the many factors that have led to the establishment of systems of quality control and environmental management as a competitive strategy for businesses. When compared to other professional sectors, the construction sector has been slower to respond to environmental problems and to adopt Environmental Management Systems (EMS). In the world today the ISO 14001 standard is currently the main frame of reference used by construction companies to implement this type of management system. This article presents the results of a general study regarding the evaluation of the application of the ISO 14001 standard at civil engineering construction worksites in the Community of Madrid (Spain), specifically pertaining to requirement 4.4.1, Resources, roles, responsibilities, and authority. According to requirement 4.4.1, company executives should appoint people responsible for implementing the EMS and also specify their responsibilities and functions. The personnel designated for supervising environmental work should also have sufficient authority to establish and maintain the EMS.

Construction work can have both positive and negative impacts on the environment. On the positive side, the construction of infrastructures, such as road and railway networks, dams, public utilities, housing, etc., enhances the quality of life in a society (SEOPAN, 1992), and is a means of increasing socioeconomic development (UNEP, 1996). Nevertheless, at the same time, construction work can also generate negative impacts on the environment. For example, construction is one of the principal consumers of non-renewable resources (e.g. the building sector accounts for 30–40% of global energy use, UNEP, 2007) as well as an important source of waste. It also contributes to the pollution of water and air, and leads to deforestation of the land (UNEP, 1996). In comparison to other business sectors, construction has adopted relatively few measures to make building work more respectful of the environment. In fact, in Europe, the construction sector has lagged far behind others, when it comes to actively responding to and dealing with environmental problems (Griffith, 1996). Fortunately, construction firms are gradually becoming aware of the need to improve their environmental attitude and policies. They are beginning to realize that they must adapt their work to comply with increasingly strict national and international legislation. Furthermore, they must also respond to the public’s growing interest in environmental problems and effectively satisfy market demands (Griffith, 1995 and Griffith, 1996). Finally, as an increasing number of building developers have begun to include the adoption of EMS as a clause in their contracts, more and more construction companies have opted for incorporating this type of Environmental Management System (Garrote de Marcos and Mosqueda, 2002). In this sense, one of the main factors influencing the adoption of green specifications in construction is stakeholder involvement (Lam et al., 2009). Today, construction firms are motivated to implement the ISO 14001 EMS as a way of doing the following: (i) adapting to environmental legislation (Fundación Entorno, 2003); (ii) improving the public image of their firm (Turk, 2009); (iii) improving environmental performance (Fryxell and Szeto, 2002); (iv) increasing environmental awareness of employees (Fryxell et al., 2004, Turk, 2009, Matouq, 2000 and Valdez and Chini, 2002) as well as to meet market demands. However, the primary motivation for the implementation of EMS in the construction sector is the demands of a changing market, followed by the desire to improve competitive strategies (Fundación Entorno, 2003 and Ofori et al., 2002; Porter and Van Der Linde, 1995). In contrast, the principal obstacle that companies generally encounter in becoming more environmentally friendly is the substantial investment required in both material and human resources (Sakr et al., 2010, Ofori et al., 2002 and Fundación Entorno, 2003). Although, the opposite has also been argued for: improved environmental performance would induce cost savings and increase sales and thus improve economic performance (Schaltegger and Synnestvedt, 2002). Construction companies admit that they are often reticent to adopt measures for environmental improvement because they do not seem to lead to tangible benefits (Fundación Entorno, 2003). In addition to, the establishment of EMS by construction firms is decisively constrained by the distinctive characteristics of this sector. For example, it is more difficult to apply an Environmental Management System at construction works because of their temporal and spatial variability. One of the ISO 14001 requirements for establishing an EMS is the availability of resources and the definition of roles, responsibilities, and authority to guarantee its implementation. Since this requirement is so important for the Environmental Management System, its analysis and assessment can help to detect deficiencies in currently functioning EMSs in construction companies. From an international perspective, Spain is one of the countries that leads the world in companies with ISO 14001 certifications (Peglau, 2008), and the Community of Madrid, is one of its most important regions. This justifies the fact that this study focuses only on the Community of Madrid. More specifically, Madrid’s geopolitical importance made it possible to regard the results obtained as sufficiently representative and generalize them to both a national and European context.

The results of this survey provided a description of the current situation of construction companies that implemented an EMS, according to ISO 14001. This study specifically focused on the availability of resources, and the definition of roles, responsibilities, and authority granted to supervisors to assure that the EMS was effectively applied at construction worksites. In this sense, the current circumstances of the construction sector point to a need for certain changes in order to successfully apply EMSs at construction worksites. More specifically, it is necessary to do the following: - EMS supervisors at the worksite should be required to have the right academic qualifications and complementary training in construction as well as in environmental work. Furthermore, supervisors should have solid experience, and be familiar with the internal operation of their company in order to do their work better. - If EMS supervisors are in charge of quality control and health and safety as well as their environmental work, it would be a good idea to integrate the specifications for the three management systems in order to simplify work and optimize resources. - Environmental duties should be carried out by personnel who do not have production duties with a view to maximally protecting the autonomy of EMS staff at the worksite. - The EMS should be provided with all necessary resources (staff, technical equipment, material, etc.). - Company management should have an active commitment to the environment and to the establishment of EMS. All company staff should be made aware of the importance of environmental management. At the worksite, production should not have priority over environmental considerations. All company employees should be actively committed to the environment, and environmental responsibility should not be limited exclusively to staff with environmental duties and roles.