The implementation of an Environmental Management System for the Isla de la Juventud Electric Company from the theoretical-methodological assumptions of the International Standard Organization (ISO) and the concept of Cleaner Production is an effort to introduce in Cuban organizations the current premises in environmental frameworks for business management.The elements of the diagnosis of business environmental management defined for Cuba by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment are in the different pollution studies, the environmental perception of the workers to establish the fundamental regularities and correct the deficiencies detected, which allowed to formulate environmental indicators for the environmental performance evaluation process. Its results led to considerable reductions in the pollutant load emitted to the environment by the various types of waste and the preparation of a manual of procedures for the company's environmental management.
Introduction
Today, humanity is more aware that throughout its history, it has been developing styles of life that are incompatible with the environment, all this is perceived in the accelerated deterioration of the Biosphere as a result of the technological and industrial impact without rationality. Now it is gradually understood that it is a mistake to consider that only with the massive introduction of technological and scientific-technical advances will the basic needs of the population be resolved. For this reason, substantial changes are taking place in the relationships between the concepts of "industrial development" and "protection of the natural environment"; long ago considered antagonistic. These changes mean moving from concern in the fight against pollution, to giving more and more importance to its integration with the economic factor.
From the International Conference on the Environment in Stockholm, Sweden 1972 until the Earth Summit, the tacit recognition was being formed about what humanity must learn to use the environment without destroying it. From that moment on, a rapid evolution began in the way of approaching environmental issues.
The new millennium meets the countries of the world with a clear objective: to design policies and instruments aimed at achieving sustainable development, which implies simultaneously achieving goals of economic growth, social welfare and environmental sustainability.
These policies include the current global energy scheme that relies on the use of extinguishable fossil fuels, polluting to a high degree, concentrated in few regions of the Earth and in the hands of large transnational consortiums and that are consumed inefficiently and unbalanced in the different countries, which poses a difficult crossroads to solve: uncontrolled development or sustainable development in the face of the ecological threat of exceeding the limits of the planet's capacity to assimilate the environmental impacts that all this causes.
In recent years, the number of organizations that set goals or have programs on environmental issues has increased. The purpose, in many cases, is not only to comply with environmental legislation but to collaborate in reversing the current situation.
Awareness of the human, natural and environmental costs of development and progress has changed the attitude of unconcern and / or justification that prevailed in this regard for a long time. The idea of economic growth without limits and for which everything could be sacrificed has been replaced by an awareness of those limits and of the importance of creating long-term quality of life conditions.
In Cuba, the Constitution of the Republic in article 27 establishes that: “The State protects the environment and natural resources of the country, recognizing its close relationship with sustainable economic and social development to make human life more rational and ensure survival., the well-being and safety of current and future generations. It is up to the competent bodies to apply this policy ”.
One of the alternatives promoted on a world scale to solve the existing dilemma between economic development and conservation is the adoption of ISO 14 000 standards, embedded as part of the market demands so that business competitiveness has environmental standards, which can be applicable to all sectors and implemented throughout the organization or only in specific parts of it.
The fundamental objective in its application is to promote continuous improvement of the results of industrial activities in relation to the environment, basically, the adoption of these standards obliges the organization to include the environmental issue in a specific structure that allows achieving improvements that mean reducing environmental costs due to fines and penalties through lines of work such as: pollution prevention in a process of internalization and incorporation of environmental management guidelines and behaviors applied to processes and activities. All of which plays a preponderant role for companies that want to be competitive and want to promote an image of a prosperous entity and "friendly to the environment".becoming an indispensable premise in the implementation and certification of an Environmental Management System according to the activities, processes and services it performs.
The Isla de la Juventud Electric Company is responsible for designing this process in the Canarreos Archipelago area, since its two most important facilities are located on the Isla de la Juventud and Cayo Largo del Sur, the two main islands of the same. those that have remarkable natural, cultural, patrimonial and economic values of importance for the country.
It is known that in this framework the energy sector can make a positive, motivating and creative difference in an environment where technological development, meeting the needs of the population and the conservation of flora, fauna and existing ecosystems in the territory they develop in complete harmony. Therefore, the design of business environmental management must be characterized by being a continuous and interactive process and whose structure, responsibilities, practices, procedures and resources are established to comply with the environmental policy, objectives and goals oriented in the policies of the Cuban State in sustainable development matter.
The existing problems in the Isla de la Juventud Electric Company in relation to environmental management, is given because the generation, transmission, distribution and commercialization of electrical energy causes numerous global and local environmental impacts and this does not account for an environmental management with a Environmental Management System according to the current legislation specified in Cuban standard NC 14001 and the procedures approved for the sector. Hence, as a problem to be solved, the design of an Environmental Management System is proposed that allows the correct implementation of the legislation to minimize the negative environmental impacts caused by the company and that constitute risks of penalties with possible effects on the effectiveness of business management.
The contribution of the research lies in the selection of a set of indicators that serve as the basis for evaluating the environmental performance of the organization in the conditions of the Isla de la Juventud Electric Company and applicable to other contexts, these become reference elements of the implementation of the Environmental Management System. In the same way, a manual and work procedures are prepared for said implementation in accordance with NC ISO 14001: 2004 corresponding to the characteristics of the organization. It will be a tool that will enable the management to have the methodology that allows reducing the environmental impact of its processes.
Development
Approaches and trends in environmental management
Since the emergence and approach of the concept of environment, there has been a great controversy and in recent decades this has had a great evolution from the extreme protection of nature to its conservation, including communities. Today it is defined as; " The living environment of the human being " and covers aspects as broad as the balanced management of natural resources or the quality of life of citizens.
The Declaration on Environment and Development, approved by the United Nations Conference in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, consolidates and proclaims the idea of "sustainable, lasting or sustainable development." All these conferences and statements made it possible to create legal frameworks to address environmental management, establishing it as: the set of activities, standards and instruments for planning, management, execution and supervision of works in public space, in order to mitigate, correct and compensate for negative environmental impacts and enhance the positive environmental impacts generated by the works in the urban environment; It can be conceived as the management of a series of assets: natural resources, physical capital and human capital that a country has,where the objective is to maximize the flow of benefits that can be obtained from those assets in the long term.
There are several authors who refer to the category of environmental management and define it as: "the requirement of a healthy environment that translates into the conservation and recovery of the natural environment, and also in the defense or promotion of other environmental values socio-economic and cultural in which we live ”.
With the creation of the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment (CITMA) in 1994, the country's environmental institutions were strengthened and the best of international experiences in this process were adapted to the particular realities of the country.
Then in 1997 the National Environmental Strategy and Law 81 of the Environment were approved, this marked a maturation in the conceptualization and development of environmental management where the main instruments for their work were identified. Conceptualized as: “the set of activities, mechanisms, actions and instruments, aimed at guaranteeing the administration and rational use of natural resources through the conservation, improvement, rehabilitation and monitoring of the environment and the control of human activity in this sphere. Environmental management applies the environmental policy established through a multidisciplinary approach, taking into account the cultural heritage, accumulated national experience and citizen participation ”.
The environmental management order has been responding to a scenario, built in stages, in which basic elements and components can be identified:
1st: Integrated management of natural resources: subdivided by ecosystems and groupings of ecosystems, where environmental monitoring is highlighted whose objective is the protection, management and sustainable use of biological diversity, soils, water resources, coastal areas, forests and vegetation, working to integrate the environmental dimension into economic and social decisions at the national, regional and local levels.
2nd: Urban environmental management: oriented to the management of solid and liquid residual waste, safe supply of the quantity and quality of water to the population, environmental health and hygiene and green areas.
3rd: Business environmental management: composed of environmental management systems, the national system of environmental recognition, ISO certifications, investments aimed at the environment within the global plan of the economy, the maintenance and operation of the treatment systems of wastewater, discharge and emission monitoring, water characterization.
The electricity industry fundamentally comprises the set of facilities that are used to transform other types of energy into electricity and transport it to the places where it is consumed. The generation, transmission, distribution and commercialization of electricity together with the support processes involve a series of specialized and complex activities that due to their specific characteristics are generators of multiple environmental impacts. waste and atmospheric emissions that are disposed of into the environment, the assessment of the pollutant load, the safe handling of chemicals and hazardous waste, environmental inspections and controls, the introduction of cleaner production practices, the economic use of liquid waste and solid, environmental training, education and information,the other commitments of environmental self-regulation, among others.
The current stage of the economic and social development of the country, with the completion of the Business Improvement process and the changes in the economic and social policy developed by the Party and the Revolution, establishes:
1. "The incorporation of environmental management in the production and service processes of the companies that apply the Direction and Management System, has the purpose of preventing, reducing and finally eliminating the negative impacts that these processes cause to the environment, ensuring the protection and preservation of natural resources on which the production of goods and services is based. It is an unavoidable social need for companies to protect the environment ”.
2. “Sustain and develop comprehensive research to protect, conserve and rehabilitate the environment and adapt the environmental policy to the new projections of the economic and social environment. Prioritize studies aimed at confronting climate change and, in general, the sustainability of the country's development. Emphasize the conservation and rational use of natural resources such as soils, water, beaches, the atmosphere, forests and biodiversity, as well as the promotion of environmental education ”.
To determine the current state of the study problem, a diagnosis was made through several stages:
1. Determination of the environmental diagnosis for the company.
• Estimation of the pollutant load generated and emitted by types of residual.
• Identification of the environmental aspects of the organization and the impacts they cause.
2. Definition of Cleaner Production actions and identification of their impacts.
3. Carrying out an environmental perception study.
4. Sample design.
5. Collection of data, analysis and processing of information.
6. Presentation of the report.
The diagnosis carried out showed trends that the main causes of environmental impact in the electricity sector are in:
- Occupation of space for the establishment of facilities, both those that produce electricity and those that extract raw materials, - Use and consumption of renewable and non-renewable resources, generation of material waste (gases, liquids or solids) or energy (noise, heat)
- And physical, socioeconomic and cultural modifications in the areas of implantation or influence.
These constitute potential impacts on the atmosphere, waters or soils and naturally, on the ecosystems or the properties related to those resources.
The magnitude and importance of the specific impacts depend fundamentally on:
- The source or energy resource used.
- The performance of the applied generation systems.
- The effectiveness of pollution correction systems.
- The characteristics and value of the affected natural environment.
To reverse this situation, Environmental Management Systems (EMS) are designed, which is essentially a systemic approach to address these problems that seeks to control the environmental effects caused by the activities or processes of a specific entity that implements it. It encompasses the entity's structure, responsibilities, and implementation modalities for environmental management.
That is why the Ministry of Basic Industry (MINBAS) approved in 1998, the Manual for the Organization and Technical Management of Production where it is established in Chapter 9 that: “the entities that comprise it must implement Environmental Management, as a result of the adoption in Cuba of the ISO 14000 standards as Cuban standards ”. Later that year, in the operational reviews carried out at all the power plants it was found that sporadic and ineffective work was being carried out for the protection of the environment and therefore it was recommended that all entities implement a work system that would allow systematization environmental management.
The following year, the Unión Eléctrica (UNE), established a process aimed at establishing a “Quality Assurance System” in all its entities, which includes environmental management in its content with the following characteristics:
- It consists of a set of procedures developed centrally in
- the central office of the UNE and that must be fully adopted by each of its entities.
- It includes a group of procedures that contain basic guidelines from which the entities develop their specific procedures.
- Develops a group of control and audit tools in order to check the progress of the system, detect non-conformities, propose and follow up on corrective measures.
Generation over the years has been modified from high consumption diesel technologies to technologies based on fuel oil, the installation of emergency diesel generators with high energy efficiency, the promotion of renewable energy sources, improvements in the transmission, distribution and delivery of electrical energy together with the changes of electrical appliances and public lighting lamps to gradually increase energy efficiency in the Territorial Electro-energy System.
This has brought as a consequence that the characteristics of the residuals have been modified to more toxicity and greater quantities are generated, as a result of the change made to cheaper raw materials (basically fuel: fuel oil for diesel).
Importance of implementing an Environmental Management System
Implement an Environmental Management System given the potential benefits of effective environmental management, which helps to increase sales, reduce costs and obtain competitive advantages. These potential benefits can be used in the search and realization of such commitments and can be grouped as follows:
• Legislation: Cuban environmental legislation has been improving and increasing in recent years. This has also happened in the rest of the world. A proactive approach in this regard by the organization reduces the risks of illegal practices and their consequent fines and other violations.
• Cost reduction: good environmental management of the organization can identify opportunities for cost reduction, for example, through measures aimed at increasing energy efficiency and minimizing waste.
• Customer demands: to increase an organization's business it is not convenient to risk its reputation or acquire legal responsibilities as a result of poor environmental performance by its suppliers.
• Investments and insurance: increasing investments in the organization would be made difficult by having to insure them against risks due to insufficient environmental performance. Banks and insurance companies increasingly increase environmental requirements in the audits to be carried out and / or require management systems in place as a condition for investments.
• Opportunities in the market: a good environmental performance of the organization can be a key factor in the search for a competitive position in the market.
• Corporate image: an adequate environmental record that shows sustained improvements by the organization can improve the corporate image and create better relationships with stakeholders (clients, environmental authorities, lawyers, employees, investors, the population, and others).
Current organizational structure of the Electricity Company of the Isle of Youth
The organizational structure is of a mechanical bureaucratic type (according to the criteria of Henry Mintzberg, 1984) where coordination depends on the strict and consecutive standardization of work for a specific purpose: guaranteeing the different electrical services to customers, it is a monopoly of the market and Its services cover all the processes defined for Unión Eléctrica: from the generation, transmission, distribution and commercialization of electrical energy.
Its corporate purpose authorizes it to:
• Generate, transmit, distribute and wholesale electrical energy in national currency and foreign currency and retail in national currency.
• Carry out power factor correction works, load accommodation and control, to the Electric Union system in national currency and to other entities in national currency and foreign currency.
• Provide technical services related to the efficient use of electrical energy and for electrical grids to the Unión Eléctrica system in national currency and to other entities in national currency and foreign currency.
• Provide rental, assembly and maintenance services to generator sets to the Electric Union system in national currency and to other entities in national currency and foreign currency.
• Carry out the verification and certification of the dielectric capacities of protection means to work with electricity in national currency.
• Offer repair and maintenance services for static and rotating electrical equipment to the Unión Eléctrica system in national currency and to other entities in national currency and foreign currency.
• Carry out electrification projects, improvements and modernization of electrical networks as well as exterior and interior lighting in national currency.
• Provide repair, maintenance, calibration of equipment and measurement means to the Electric Union system in national currency and to other entities in national currency and foreign currency.
• Provide communication services to the entities of the Electric Union and the Ministry of Basic Industry located in the municipality through their own communication channels in national currency and foreign currency.
• Provide support or toll services through the backers to the communications entities of the province, in national currency and foreign currency.
• Provide construction, assembly, repair, adjustment and maintenance services to communications systems, electrical and automatic protections to the Electric Union system in national currency and to other entities in national currency and foreign currency.
• Offering services for reading meter meters, billing and charging for electricity to entities in the territory that generate electricity in national currency and foreign currency.
• Produce and wholesale transformers, means of protection to work in overhead lines, disconnectors, monopolar and air switches, as well as offer repair and maintenance services to the Electricity Union system in national currency and to other entities in national currency and currency.
Conclusions
The diagnosis of the Environmental Management System (EMS) of the Electricity Company in Isla de la Juventud corroborated the existence of the problem formulated when there is no systematic characterization, monitoring, treatment of discharges and emissions that are disposed of to the environment and the beginning of the safe handling of chemicals and hazardous waste, all of which becomes feasible when the Cleaner Production methodology and practices are applied, the pollutant load is evaluated and the specific legal requirements and the corresponding assurance of functions and control, as well as work on environmental education of workers to face the challenge of improving their performance.
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