The Kapuni ammonia/urea manufacturing plant in Taranaki, an original Think Big project from the Muldoon years, has attained a top international environmental accolade in the hands of Ballance Agri-Nutrients, which took over the plant in 1992.
Kapuni has attained ISO 14001 accreditation, certified independent verification that its environmental management system is world class.
‘We have worked hard, and invested tens of millions of dollars, to keep this plant up to date in all aspects,’ explains Ballance Chief Executive Larry Bilodeau.
‘In the early days there were some environmental issues, however, we have made steady progress to attain this top environmental management honour, certifying that Kapuni has minimised its impact on the environment.’
Mr Bilodeau said it was hugely significant that a fertiliser company could hold its head up as a leader in environmental management.
‘Kapuni is the first of our four manufacturing sites to reach this standard. We will use our experiences here to spread the quest out to cover our superphosphate manufacturing plants in Mt Maunganui, Invercargill and Whangarei.
‘It has taken huge commitment from our Kapuni management to support it and go forward. The process is one of continual improvement, even after accreditation, and it takes up a lot of man hours and resources.’
Mr Bilodeau, who was site manager at Kapuni before becoming Ballance chief executive eight years ago, praised John Maxwell, his successor at Kapuni, for his commitment to the process.
He said Kapuni employees started preparing for ISO accreditation in July 2007. Staff volunteers were trained externally to become internal auditors, and were freed up from their duties as required to carry out a range of inspections.
‘There are 50 procedures that need to be audited and sent through for verification. The main external audits take place twice a year, taking a minimum of two days to complete, but there’s a monthly round of internal audits as well.’
Elaine Fraser, Ballance’s Health, Safety & Environmental Co-ordinator at Kapuni, said the accreditation process involved re-writing the company’s Environmental Management System (EMS) manual to follow standards, going through the site identifying ‘aspects’ that impact on the environment, and implementing steps to reduce those impacts.
‘We needed to have the whole site workforce on board to be able to show that we were not only following procedure, but always out there looking for continual improvements, and more importantly, acting on the findings to make these improvements.
‘We wouldn’t have been able to do it without having the buy in and support of the management team. They set the example by giving people in their team time to do audits, to identify continuous improvements, and to implement actions to make those changes.’
She said there were already 10 new items on the action list as part of the continual improvement process ahead of the next six-monthly audit at the site.
‘It’s a special thrill to be able to announce this alongside World Environment Day.’
25 May 2010
