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Cleaner Technology Projects in Denmark 1996

Employee Participation in the Implementation of Cleaner Technology in the Co-Operative Slaughter-house TICAN

This company report for the co-operative slaughterhouse TICAN has been written in the light of the company’s participation in the MIRT-project (Employee Participation in the Implementation of Cleaner Technology) in the period from spring 1993 until autumn 1995. The report describes and analyses the course of the project in the company. Furthermore it suggests how employee participation and the environmental effort in the company could be continued, among other things by means of the environmental management system.

Throughout the project period TICAN took initiatives which increased the original content of the MIRT-project. Examples are implementation of the integrated quality and environmental management system and especially the constellation of nine divisional environmental groups.

The groups have worked with environmental reviews, drawing up targets and action plans and initiated activities with regards to solving of problems related to health and safety as well as environmental problems. Through the project the employees now have an overview over the principles of pollution prevention and cleaner technologies and thereby a new basis for future environmental efforts.

Since 1985 TICAN has been aware of environmental conditions originally due to increasing prices of wastewater and thus related to internal resource savings and minimisation of production costs. In general, TICAN acted according to regulatory demands and thus reactively. By means of the trade consultancy for cleaner technology, participation in the MIRT-project, and not least implementation of a certified quality and environmental management system, the company has changed to a preventive strategy which at the same time includes a more systematic effort than before.

TICAN is a non-hierarchical organisation where communication, co-operation and co-ordination in the company still to a large extent is informal with "a short distance from word to action". In general TICAN has an extensive employee participation in problem solving and in decision-making processes, especially in comparison with other companies in the slaughterhouse trade.

The existing company culture, management and organisational structures and the company’s tradition with employee participation and ongoing environmental improvements have been good preconditions for the project. However, the company’s preconditions have also been an obstacle for the groups’ environmental effort. Focus on production, lacking recognition of the importance of change processes, and some of the environmental groups’ lack of dynamics have especially appeared as barriers to the project’s intentions.

Through the environmental effort TICAN has achieved a number of specific improvements regarding technical optimisation. Whether TICAN has advanced employee participation, seen in the light of the company’s traditions, is questionable. Mainly well-known and deeply rooted methods have been used in order to involve the employees. Nevertheless the nine divisional groups were an extension of the existing traditions of decentralisation.

Furthermore the introduction of a integrated quality and environmental management system certified according to ISO 9002 and BS 7750 has contributed to an alteration of the company’s preconditions towards a more systematic effort. The system will consequently be a factor in securing that the environmental effort is continued, and that the process of increasing the employees’ environmental awareness is sustained.

The report provides the following recommendations for continuous improvements of the environmental performance as well as the participation of the employees:

	Improvement of the dynamics in the decentral environmental work through a reorganisation.
	Increase the employees’ motivation through e.g. courses for the divisions or external introductions.
	Maintenance of the systematic and process orientated work in groups e.g. via formulation of a `business plans’.
	A co-ordination and planning group which takes independent initiatives.
	Longer periods of planning in the environmental area with long-term objectives in line with the environmental policy.
	Enhancement of environmental information and development of an environmental database.
	Use of formalised company networks and bench marking.
	Continued improvements of the management system by strengthening the dynamic and the systematic efforts.

Author/ institution

Lene M. Nielsen, Aalborg Universitet. Institut for Samfundsudvikling og Planlægning

This report is subsidised by the National Council for Recycling and Cleaner Technology.

ISSN no. 0908-9195
ISBN no. 87-7810-690-7

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