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CHEMICAL WEEK November 10, 1993 page 39 Management in the U.S. chemical industry reached an epiphany this year. Having ap proached the ISO 9000 quality standard series as a kind of protectionist time bomb planted by the solidifying European Community, it now speaks primarily of the internal benefits of reg istration. Improved quality, increased cost effi ciency, and a reduction in the time and money spent on supplier audits are among the positive results cited by newly registered companies. After picking up 384 of the nearly 2,000 regis trations in the U.S.. the chemical industry has learned to stop worrying and love the bomb. There is. however, another slate of interna tional standards in the making at the Genevabased International Organization for Standard ization. ISO's newly formed technical committee 207 (TC 207) is negotiating an international standard for environmental management that might or might not be linked in its final version to the existing ISO 9000 quality regime. Sources agree that the implications of TC 207 are stagger ing and could affect environmental law, interna tional trade, and voluntary environment health, and safety (EHS) programs such as Responsible Care. According to John Master, international affairs committee chairman atthe Chemical Manufactur ers Association, the U.S. chemical industry is taking a far more active position on TC 207 than it did on the qualitystandard. "We decided late last year thatwe couldn't afford to sit back and see TC 207 as European driven, something that will stay on the other side of the Atlantic," says Master. "This time, instead of having to catch up, we decided to partici pate." He says CMA, with representatives in lead ership roles on several TC 207 subcommittees, may be the most active U.S. industry association negoti ating the standard. Chemical Weeks ISO update will examine the orthcoming program as well as industry's new understanding of the 9000 series. Coverage from recent CWconferences will examine ISO 9000 within the evolving EC regulatory land scape as well as frontline efforts at combining quality and the environment in Europe (pp. 42. 65). A review of changes under way in the soon-to-be-published first revision of the 9000 series [p. 46] is followed by the results of a chemical industry survey that illustrates prior ities and costs involved in gaining registration [p. 48\. Other highlights include a look at ISO 90Q0's role in supplier auditing (p. 49] and in the establishment of automated document management systems (p. 57). plementation of management systems. GIVING ORDER TO CHAOS Such an approach may be necessary in establishing the tvpeofauditing scheme favored by the chemical industry. Negotiating a nonprescriptive approach Despite the immediate skittishness prompted by environmental audits, industry is largely receptive to the ust as ISO 9000 was driven bv cus the ISO 9000 quality au Itomer demand around the world, dit--is virtually inevita the ISO protocol now being negoti ble in the short term, giv ated for environmental management, en the different skills is likely to be adopted globally within needed for quality and idea of an international standard in the environmental arena. W. Ross Stevens, manaser/corporate issues at DuPont and a member of the environmental perfot - a short time. The speed with which environmental audits. mance evaluation com environmental management is mov The standard might also mittee for TC 207. de ing through the usually drawn-out pro prescribe third party-au scribes the standard's cess of standard writing in Geneva is diting that goes beyond potential to create order an early indication of the momentum regulatory requirements out of chaos by provid behind international norms in this area or discretionary pro ing global unanimity on [box. p. 40). grams. Chemical Manu environmental bench However, the driving force behind facturers Association rep marking. "Concerns over ISO's Technical Committee 207 resentatives negotiating the environment and a (TC207). which is developing the new the standard say they are company's impact on it standard, is not customer demand. It calling for consolidation are an inescapable aspect is the social and regulatory pressures of quality and environ- Master: Time crunch. of corporate perfor surrounding environmental steward mental initiatives and a flexible mix of mance." savs Stevens. "We have no ship and accountability. This basic internal and third-party audits, allow choice but "to take some approacn to difference between the 9000 series on ing registrants to determine the appro dealing with these concerns and get quality and the upcoming environ priate level of disclosure. ting in line with our stakeholders. ISO mental standards is cause for great Among other concerns is that a high would give us a structure to do this concern within the chemical indus ly prescriptive standard could result uniformly around the world." try--concern that centers largely on in trade barriers that exclude coun U.S. industry concerns are similar auditing, the cornerstone of the ISO tries not culturally in sync with the to those elsewhere. At Chemical Week's process. spirit of the standard's directives. John Qualitv in the Environment confer The popular view is that two bad Master, international affairs commit ence in London last month (CIV. Oct. things could happen as the standard is tee chairman at CMA. says the indus- 27. p. 25). there was a general call for completed. The firs'.--an auditing re trv is pushing a performance-based an end to the proliferation of manage gime seoarate from and in addition to approach that remains flexible on im ment standards and an expansion of DSW 1 3 3 5 1 8 STLCOPCB4033476 CHEMICAL WEEK November 10, 1993 page 40 the ISO 9000 series to form the basis Again, the standard could hurt or help. for standard setting in environmental depending on how it is written. It management systems. Some ofthe prob could provide the long-sought mecha lems inherent in accomplishing this, nism for compliance verification, or it however, are reflected in the U.K.'s ; could codify practices in such a way experience with BS 7750. the British that the focus shifts from the volun Standards Institute's (BSI) environmen- 1 tary effort to the ISO standard. Sourc tal management standard. ' es. however, are optimistic that an ISO Rick Kelly, consultant and adviser : standard has the potential to comple to BSI, points out that sufficient tech- : ment voluntary programs. nical differences in environmental man- Monsanto (St. Louis) has no objec agement and quality management war tion to ISO moving into environment, ranted writing a separate standard from ! health, and safety standards, says John BS 5750. the U.K. equivalent to ISO i Henshaw. director of quality and com 9000. "ISO 9000 is a contract between : pliance assurance. It would help, he supplier and customer," says Kelly. ! says, by addressing concerns not in "When a third party, such as regulato cluded in Responsible Care, thus broad ry authorities, enters the field, you do ening EH&S efforts. He also points to set ambiguitv." the virtue ofthird-party auditing under " STILL WRITING. Nevertheless. BSI Qual ISO in light of the debate over outside ity Assurance (BSIQA: Milton Keynes. auditing of Responsible Care. He adds U.K.). the U.K.'s largest BS 5750 certi that here, as well, the industry has fying group, says it will audit and voluntary efforts under way. such as register companies to BS 5750 and BS the Environmental Audit Roundtable, 7750 simultaneously if it is granted a 10-vear-old organization ofchemical, scope to handle BS' 7750. The govern auto, and waste management compa ment has yet to decide which organi nies that has established guidelines and zation will be responsible for accredit practices for environmental audits. ing certification groups for BS 7750. Henshaw would like ISO to incorpo National standards similar to BS 7750 rate the group's principles. are being written in Canada, France, , Another voluntary initiative from Ireland, and South Africa. industry', cited by Ron Pingle. director Sources agree that ISO's environ of environmental affairs at Dow Chem mental standard will also have to har ical. is the Environmental Self Assess monize with voluntary initiatives, the ment Program (ESAP) sponsored by the most important being Responsible Care. Global Environment Management lni- DSW tiative. a group of 21 U.S. corporations. ESAP emerged as a means of applying the International Chamber of Com merce's 16 principles of sustainable development to an internal environ mental auditing system. "It's intended as a road map for assessing your perfor mance." says Pingle. "Kind of like Re sponsible Care." Pingle says Dow has done a lot of work correlating the 16 principles with the CMA program. Dow is not alone in seeking correla tions between environment and qual ity invitabons. CMA recently published the first in what may be a series o; matrices illustrating the direct syner gies between programs such as ISO 9000. Responsible Care. Total Quality Management, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's process safety code (CM'. Sept. 22. p. 39). The first matrix is based on the process safety code ofResponsible Care. PUBLIC VIEW. ]. Roger Hirl. president and CEO of OxvChem and chairman oi CMA. sees an ISO standard offering an alternative to publicly sharing data that companies use to monitor and measure their own environmental per formance. In a recent speech at CMA's Chemical Industry Conference in At lanta. Hirl said. "To have a facility's environmental, health, and safety man agement system certified by a third party may satisfy some of the need for pubiic. accountability. We see the po tential need for those in the global industry who want to remain competitive to become ISO certified." CMA's Master, former di rector oi environment. health. and safety at Arco Chemical (Newtown Square. PA), says that despite the rapid work on TC 207--he sees what would normally be a five- year process getting done in 18 months--there is still a serious time crunch, largely because the European Com munity's environmental au diting regulation goes into ci- fect in early 1995. If ISO's environmental audit is not complete by then, the Euro pean Committee for Standard ization (CEN) will be forced . uine up with a system for tiio EC. says Master. CEN is hoping to adopt an ISO stan dard as the framework for the EuroDean regulation. ` RICKMULLIK with Ron Begley *. l q end Emma Chvnoweth STLCOPCB4033477