ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE COMPANIES IN NIGERIA

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE COMPANIES IN NIGERIA (ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS)

ABSTRACT

Environmental Management System refers to management of an organization’s environmental programs in a comprehensive, systematic, planned and documented manner. It includes the organizational structure, planning and resources for developing, implementing and maintaining policy for environmental protection. It is not surprising that collectively, SMEs also have major  The increasing demands for consideration of the environmental impacts may result in SMEs being required to at least consider environmental management systems implementation based on standards such as the ISO 14001 series, developed by the International Organization for Standardization. In this situation, an EMS may be considered both a cost and a benefit to the organization. The aim and objective of this project work is to study the Environmental Management Systems in small and medium scale companies using Lagos as a case study. Five small and medium scale companies namely: Ulysses, Regency Overseas, Onward Paper mill, Techno Oil Ltd and VGC Water were used for this project research. Questionnaires were administered to the management staff and employees below the management level of the selected companies and the two selected regulators-SON and LASEPA. The findings obtained from the survey carried out on the companies indicated that these companies were not yet Environmental Management System (ISO14001) certified. This study therefore recommends that Environmental Management Systems should be implemented in SMEs because the integration of EMSs into a company process of activities will help to support environmental sustainability and also help the companies to reduce their resource consumption of water, electricity, heat energy and discharge of waste. This research work is made up of five chapters. Chapter One dealt with the introduction to the subject matter; Chapter Two examined the conceptual ad theoretical framework to the study; Chapter Three stated the methodology used in carrying out the research work; Chapter Four covered the discussion of findings and results obtained from the survey. Lastly and Chapter Five concluded on the whole research work and recommendations were drawn from the results obtained from the survey findings.