In the context of globalisation trend, Vietnam is regarded as an attractive investment destination for foreign investors and more and more multinational organisations have been present in Vietnam to do business. Sustainable development and corporate trustworthiness are necessary conditions for signing business agreements and ISO14001:2015 certificate is a key for business integration.
“Green passport”
A lesson that Vietnam learns from other countries is quality management is now an urgent need. Growth quality must be emphasised, not growth pace. Economic growth must benefit all stakeholders, including society and nature. It cannot be a burden for the poor and future generations as happened in some parts of the world.
Among environmental management standards, ISO14001:2015 is one of the most widely used standards in the world and is an important business tool for many organisations. With more than 300,000 certificates granted each year, this standard is ranked pretty high in working agendas of many organisations interested in environmental impacts.
Benefits of adopting ISO 14001:2015 include preventing pollution, reducing input costs, proving law compliance, satisfying needs of foreign customers, increasing market shares and building confidence among stakeholders.
ISO 14001:2015 looks to sustainable development by reducing waste, economically using energy and using new environment-friendly materials. Waste reduction means reducing wastewater, gas emissions or solid wastes. In many cases, concentrations of wastewater pollution, emissions or solid wastes are reduced substantially. Low concentration and volume of waste will require low costs for disposal. Thus, it will help treat more effectively and prevent pollution.
Not only that, ISO 14001 certificate is a proof for the organisation’s satisfaction of legal requirements on environment. It is like a green passport into the world market. This will generate competitive advantages for the organisation and increase its current market share.
In addition, ISO 14001:2015 helps meet demands of foreign customers and build confidence among stakeholders. This is useful for export-oriented organisations. Customer confidence enables organisations to increase resources from public and financial institutions (national and international).
Inevitable trend in integration
To improve competitiveness in the context of deeper economic integration, businesses must meet global standards. Therefore, applying quality management systems is an indispensable way. ISO 14001:2015 is essential. Companies need to understand that the cost for implementing this standard is an investment cost, not a loss of investment. In Vietnam, companies have understood the importance of exercising corporate social responsibility toward sustainable development. Up to 95 per cent of companies agree that cleaner production and waste management initiatives/projects for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are very practical and useful. Many companies have introduced the ISO 14001 environmental management standard.
Dow Chemical Group is a typical example in applying and disseminating quality standards in Vietnam. The group has utilised its solutions and technologies to address challenges in life against people living in disadvantaged remote areas. This has brought real effects in organisation, administration, trade and improvement of product and service quality.
In addition to active applications of enterprises, training and dissemination of ISO environmental management standard system are also accelerated and expanded.
Most recently, December 25 in Hanoi, the Office for Business Sustainable Development (SDforB) under the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) organised a training course on “Guidance on ISO 14001: 2015 application in the business.” This is one of activities of the programme “Cleaner production and waste management training project for businesses in Vietnam, second phase (from July 2015 to December 2015 and from January 2016 to December 2016). These activities will help the business community to act and comply with environmental laws, thus bringing benefits to businesses and the society as a whole.
Besides, typical companies like Dow Chemical are always ready to share experiences and contributions, develop initiatives, and support fledgling businesses to take part in environmental protection. Specifically, the group sponsored the organisation of 31 training courses on cleaner production and waste management in the business for small and medium enterprises in Vietnam in 30 provinces and cities across the country from 2012 to 2014. Dow Chemical sent its experts to share experience, provide technical expertise, and speak at specialised seminars and forums.
By attending training courses, Dow will share and raise perception of benefits of cleaner production and waste management for businesses. Such benefits include better products and services; minimised risks, particularly in legal aspect; better corporate image; and better health and safety conditions for workers among others.
Sustainable development is required in integration and using tools of the ISO environmental management standard system is an inevitable trend in countries. Vietnam desperately needs training courses and leading companies like Dow to replicate this model to meet deeper integration requirements.
