Barriers and Difficulties Concerning the Implementation of an Environmental Management System in a Bakery-Confectionary Industry in Cyprus for 8 Years

Food industries are facing growing pressure nowadays to confirm that their activities are environmentally sensitive, but there is also increased internal pressure to maintain or increase productivity as well as profitability due to market requirements. The main environmental issues for the food industries are water, energy and natural resources consumptions, solid and liquid waste management, chemicals, land use and air pollution. Therefore, it is necessary for each food industry to establish and implement an integrated management system to identify, manage and control those issues. EMS (Environmental Management System) is considered to be a tool in order to provide guidance and practical solutions to any kind of organizations to improve their performance on environmental aspects. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the barriers that arise during the implementation of an EMS in Cyprus food industry (acting in bakery and confectionary products) in the framework of the international standard of ISO 14001. The major problem arising from the implementation of the ISO 14001: 2004 was related with the requirements of the paragraph 4.5.3 which focuses on non-conformities, corrective actions and preventing actions, as well as on the requirements of the paragraph 4.4.6 which focuses on the operational control.