Bluescope Steel CSE Report 2005 - Environmental Management System Case Studies

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Environmental Management System Case Studies

Register Improves Environmental Compliance

In June 2004 BlueScope Steel's Corporate Environment team developed and began implementation of an Environmental Compliance Register to significantly improve environmental compliance management systems.

The Environmental Compliance Register was developed to provide BlueScope Steel with a system to understand its regulatory compliance obligations and to monitor compliance to those obligations. The Compliance Register forms the centrepiece of the environmental governance framework and positions the company from reactive non-compliance to proactive compliance management.

The first Compliance Register was rolled out in September 2004. There are now 45 Compliance Registers in operation, representing more than 60 per cent of the company's operations (by number of employees). Worldwide, 98 operational sites will be covered by the system. It is anticipated that 85 operations will have Compliance Registers implemented by the end of 2005/2006.

The new system for monitoring compliance ensures line management accountability and demonstrates due diligence, by providing a process for clarifying environmental obligations. The compliance register works by each accountable person reviewing actions required to demonstrate compliance each month.

Once appropriately implemented the system will:

Allow each area of the business to gain a better understanding of its entire legal and corporate obligations and allow monitoring of compliance with those obligations;
Allow each area to identify gaps in current compliance verification methods;
Provide consistent compliance verification;
Assist in identifying compliance trends and issues when planning environmental improvements;
Be used as a tool for the Environmental Management System to highlight potential problems before they become legal non-compliances;
Readily identify and action identified opportunities to enhance compliance management; and
Facilitate continuous improvement.

Asia Business Achieves ISO 14001 Certification Upgrade

BlueScope Steel's Asian Building and Manufacturing Markets business achieved certification to the international standard ISO14001 (2004) in July 2005, following an extensive program to upgrade its environmental management systems.

The business was previously accredited to ISO14001 (1996) and embarked upon a 12 month project to overhaul its entire environment management system and achieve a certification upgrade.

The new ISO14001 (2004) standard contains a number of significant new requirements, particularly in the areas of legal compliance, training requirements and management review.

The project team undertook a complete review of the business' environmental management system and rebuilt it from scratch, ensuring it would meet the new requirements.

The Asian Building and Manufacturing Markets business comprises 24 rollforming plants and three metallic coating facilities across 10 countries.

Environment personnel from each site provided input to the process, including the supply of environment plans, objectives and targets, training programs, and hazard registers. Their passion and enthusiasm for the task overcame the geographic and cultural challenges of the project.

The project team dealt with the complexity and geographical diversity of the project by establishing templates to ensure a common approach and the entire environmental management system is now located on an electronic database accessible from all sites.

In awarding the new ISO14001 certification, international certifying body Lloyds Register of Quality Assurance assessors complimented the company on the level of cooperation throughout the business, despite its complexity and on the level of legal compliance achieved.

In addition to providing an opportunity to upgrade the environmental systems of the business, ISO14001 certification is respected in the marketplace and assists in tendering for major projects.