41 Summary and conclusions, Miljøstyrelsen

Miljøledelse i produktkæder - en eksempelsamling

41 Summary and conclusions

Concrete examples of formalised and binding environmental co-operation have been described in 2 product chains. Through a number of years the company DAN-RENS A/S has dealt with environmental circumstances, and within the last couple of years SKY-LIGHT A/S has also focused on environmental matters.

The conditions of the actual companies have been described and it has been shown that when Danish and foreign companies co-operate barriers are set up against including environmental considerations.

Danish and foreign companies in the product chain of the 2 companies have been interviewed on the basis of an interview form prepared by the project group. The answers have been processed and summarised. Tools used by the 2 companies have also been described.

The conclusions are described in form of the barriers met by the companies when environmental work is brought into focus.

The exchange of experience between DAN-RENS A/S and SKY-LIGHT A/S has been very positive and rewarding for both parties. The process of learning each other's work and the handling of environmental matters between customer and supplier has been discussed.

The Danish companies that have been asked have all been very co-operative and willing to answer questions. It has been more difficult to get any dialogue started with the foreign companies.

In spite of the fact that Danish companies for some time have worked with environmental matters and for instance have built and introduced the ISO 14001 standard, the EMAS-regulation etc., the competitive power has not been increased correspondingly, neither as regards current nor new customers. Private and public customers make demands from the suppliers according to the following prioritised sequence: price, quality and guarantee of delivery and only then environmental matters.

Trade with the other EEC countries is made difficult when Denmark wishes to be a pioneer country within the environmental area and keeps introducing special rules. This means that the flow of goods is being impeded.

The inscrutable legislation in Denmark hinders the environmental work of the companies. It is necessary for Danish companies to set aside enormous resources in order to observe the legislation. There is not a lot of help to be had from the local supervising authorities who do not seem to possess the necessary resources to keep up with the latest legislation in the area. The foreign suppliers cannot command the Danish legislation and therefore disregard the inquiries of the Danish companies regarding environmental areas.

The reporting to the Danish public authorities require many resources and often calls for specialist knowledge that the smaller companies know nothing about. This resource is taken from the time, which might have been spent on innovative thinking and new initiatives within the environmental area.

A harmonisation of Danish legislation in the individual municipalities would generally facilitate the work in the companies. Reference is here made to Regulation on Waste No. 619 of 27th June 2000.

In spite of the described conditions the Danish companies are always willing to help each other to make as much environmental work as possible. The companies are well aware of the fact that they know a lot about the environmental laws, however, they are not really confident that what they know is enough.