Relação entre a certificação pela norma NBR ISO 14001 e a ocorrência de penalidades ambientais em organizações do estado de São Paulo

Abstract

This work had as general-purpose search for a relationship between certification by Standard ISO 14001 and the occurrence of environmental penalties in organizations in the São Paulo State. It also had the objective to develop and apply a Penalty Reduction Indicator (PRI) to evaluate quantitatively the effectiveness of environmental management systems in relation to the reduction of penalties and a critical analysis of the accreditation and certification systems in Brazil. First, the INMETRO site, was conducted the survey of companies certified by ISO 14001 in the state of São Paulo. Later, lifting the number of penalties applied by CETESB these certified companies was done from January 2001 to June 2015. From there, we analyzed which companies had reduced the number of penalties after the implementation and certification ISO 14001. It used as intentional sampling criteria the companies that received more than five penalties in the period, thus forming a group of fourteen companies. Through qualitative analysis, on eleven companies verified the benefit of reducing the number of penalties. In four of these companies, the benefit occurred over time. In three companies has not verified the benefit of the reduction in penalties. The quantitative analysis performed by applying the IRP was possible for eleven of the selected companies. The IRP calculated showed that seven of these eleven companies (63.6%) had the indicators acceptable rating ("GREAT" and "GOOD"). Four companies (36.4%) were the indicators classified "REASONABLE" and "BAD", indicating that, for these, the Environmental Management System is not yet consolidated, improvements should occur. IRP was robust and efficient, indicating the importance of quantitative analysis and the use of a numeric indicator to corroborate the results obtained in the qualitative analysis. It is concluded that the implementation and certification of an Environmental Management System according to ISO 14001 can bring benefits to businesses because the implementation of a preventive culture, development of methodologies and procedures for environmental aspects and impacts, actions and responses to control and emergency documents (all items of ISO 14001). These can lead to a reduction in number of penalties. Finally, this study found that for the accreditation system, the activities developed by INMETRO are important to the pursuit of quality of certification bodies and consequently the certification processes. However, it found that this system still has some deficiencies. The paper also pointed out some deficiencies in the certification system, with recommendations for improvements.