At the moment to survive in an environmentally- friendly supply chain, corporations are faced in a circumstance that their green Product development fever is much hotter than ever. With a circumstance of considering not only simply product development, but also the disposal process of waste matters, corporations are operating a design system reflecting environment in the planning stage of products.
Starting from Japan in late 2006, environment has emerged as a more powerful trade barrier than customs as the EU allows Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) to come into effect.
In connection with this the Environmental Management Corporation chairman Son Joo-suk pinpoints in an exclusive interview with The Korea IT Times, a leading IT-oriented English Journal in Korea: Environment trade regulation becomes a tendency which is being disseminated to a pan-global issue as an independent RoHS came into effect one after another in the US state of California and China.
Asked whether environmental-friendliness will be competitiveness, the chairman named CO2 reduction for coping with climate change is another good example.
To propel diverse CO2 reduction activities, most advanced countries including Europe have restricted carbon dioxide emission quantity of import vehicles for country CO2 emission reduction. WSC (World Semiconductor Council) has also agreed to reduce Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) to 10% of 1995 level by the year 2010 which are discharged in the process of manufacturing, according to Son.
To cope with climate change such as global warming aggressively, the chairman on the other hand kept an eye on the fact that Environmental Management Corporation induces for example a local autonomous entity's proactive participation through technology and financial support. In conjunction with such an environmental regulation policy, Son said: Private industry is considering up to ethical/moral dimension for the sake of boosting environmentally- friendly their images beyond merely confrontation dimension.
In a nutshell, the conversion into an environment-friendly structure for private industry nowadays is being embossed as an indispensable condition to be adapted for a paradigm of new international society and this is appearing immediately as corporations' competitiveness, he epitomizes.
In that regard, the chairman proposes: It will be necessary for domestic corporations to secure international competitiveness alongside of beefing up their capacity, which can cope with environmental regulation raising its head internationally.
Environment trade regulation as a pan-global issue
Regarding Environmental Management Corporation activity, which induces environment- friendly technology management, which is as follows: The Environmental Management Corporation supports the designation of environmentally-friendly corporations, which carry out aggressively not only appropriate disposal of a pollutant, but also preventive environmental management and improvement under the participation of all employees based on CEO environmentally- friendly management will.
In order to be designated as the environmentally- friendly company, a candidate company comes to be screened by submitting the present condition of its environmental management and improvement plan draft etc. Son said that Environmental Management Corporation is supporting such environment-friendly company designation through on-the-spot investigation and documents screening by participating in this examination as a rightful committee member.
In reference to technology diagnosis affairs about public environmental facilities, Son explains proudly: specialized organization system, environmental policy support function and objectivity maintenance are easy for Environmental Management Corporation, based on accumulated experiences and technologies from all sorts of affairs execution such as environmental facility installation, operation and management. Environmental Management Corporation carries out technology diagnosis affairs about public environmental facilities, entrusted from the Minister of the Ministry of Environment.
From the year 1996 when the Corporation enforced the technology diagnosis affairs for the first time to the year 2006, Environmental Management Corporation has enforced the technology diagnosis about a total of 740 environmental facilities nationwide. In 2007, Environmental Management Corporation is scheduled to do the technology diagnosis about a total of 237 environment facilities and as of the end of May, completed technology diagnosis about 83 environmental facilities.
Referring to the fact that Environmental Management Corporation is a composite environmental management specialized institution which contributes to environmental preservation by carrying out environmental improvement projects effectively, the chairman emphasizes: the EMC is strengthening the core project-oriented business capacity by connecting with environmental policy of advance prevention field.
Special staple projects Environmental Management Corporation drives, break down greatly into three kinds such as governmental vicarious execution projects including telemonitoring network management of ambient air, water and noise, secondly local autonomous entity vicarious execution projects supporting environmental facility installation and operation such as waste treatment facilities, and thirdly governmental projects such as environmental facility technology diagnosis and support and environment technology development/dissemination.
In order to develop as a national enterprise which spearheads the future environment, all executives and employees of Environmental Management Corporation are doing their best for the sake of project goal accomplishment such as composite management about environment Quality, the optimization support about public environment facilities, and environment industry and environment technology nurturing, Son underscored.
Environment-friendliness is competitiveness
Touching upon environment market's demand creation outlook and the Corporation's capture strategy, Son introduces that Environmental Management Corporation came to be entrusted with Gaesung Industrial Complex's waste water disposal facility thanks to the fact that the Corporation is recognized as the best environment- related technology group at home.
Not content with this, the chairman said that the Corporation is visualizing advanced environment facility installation project such as automatic measuring network installation to the discharge facilities of Gaesung Industrial Complex companies. As environment issues like climate change and Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) emerges as an important issue internationally, and developing countries including Vietnam, China and India enjoying high economic growth are propelling environmental preservation as their staple policy and accordingly, these developing country environmental markets too is rapidly growing, Son said.
Concerning a trait of these developing country's environmental markets and the point at issue, he reminded us of the fact that the user of environmental market in these countries is the government and the policy decision-maker as those markets are formed by governmental policy.
Second, developing country's environmental market like environmental plant construction projects is formed by Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan or grant from advanced countries and international development finance institution or by direct investment from private sectors. However, domestic ODA scale is absolutely small in comparison with those of advanced countries, and domestic small environmental companies further hold a problem in investment of a large scale like multinational environmental enterprises.
Third, Son pointed out that effective confrontation about developing country's environmental demand is insufficient for domestic environment-related institutions due to expertise shortage and awareness shortage about project appropriateness survey etc.
To overcome such controversial points and to pioneer developing country's environmental market aggressively and more actively, he proposes that policy inducement between governmental ministries be vital so that development survey projects for the inroad into developing countries including ODA and investment projects plus developing country's environmental project can be enlarged.
He has committed himself to play a spearhead role for Environmental Management Corporation which equips with special expertise and external confidence to overcome developing country's inferior social infrastructure and several barriers in administration and institutions.
What's more, he added that Environmental Management Corporation is doing its best to diversify oversea environment markets and to secure external competitiveness by carrying out international joint research & development (R&D) projects and is propelling largescale environmental plant export groundwork construction by teaming up with ODA and international development finance organization including World Bank.
