ISO 14001 certification process and reduction of environmental penalties in organizations in Sao Paulo State, Brazil

Abstract The aim of this study is to evaluate the certification process of the ISO 14001 Standard for organizations in Sao Paulo State, Brazil, regarding the reduction of environmental penalties imposed by the Sao Paulo State Environmental Agency (Companhia Ambiental do Estado de Sao Paulo – CETESB). The specific objectives of this study are to conduct a survey of companies certified by the ISO 14001 and penalties imposed by CETESB in these companies and to establish a correlation between the penalties and certification regarding the implementation date. It also aims to develop and apply a Penalty Reduction Indicator (PRI) to quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of Environmental Management Systems (EMS) concerning penalty reductions. The collection of penalties imposed by CETESB covered the period from January 2001 to June 2015. As purposeful sampling criteria, companies that received more than five penalties during the period were considered, thus forming a group of fourteen companies. As a result, it was observed that in ten companies simply certifying an EMS according to the ISO 14001 did not prevent them from receiving CETESB penalties after the ISO 14001 certification, but there was a benefit of the reduction in penalties over time. In two companies, benefits related to the reduction in penalties were not observed. In two other companies, in which it was not possible to make a comparison between the periods before and after certification, the benefits were seen only over time. The Penalty Reduction Indicator (PRI) was possible for eleven out of the selected companies. The PRI calculated by the methodology showed that seven out of the eleven companies (63.6%) had an index with an acceptable score (“EXCELLENT” and “GOOD”) and four out of these eleven companies (36.4%) had a “FAIR” and “BAD” score, showing that for them, the Environmental Management System is not yet consolidated, and improvements are needed. Thus, it was concluded that implementing and certifying an EMS according to the ISO 14001 brought benefits to these companies. The reasons were implementing a preventive culture, developing methodologies and procedures to deal with important environmental aspects and impacts, actions and responses to emergencies and document control, which are all items of the ISO 14001 and may have led to less penalties imposed by the CETESB.