To be competitive, companies must take a clear stance on environmental matters,’ says Gunnar Eik, CEO of the Motor Group representing Mitsubishi Motors in Norway. Mitsubishi’s Norwegian environmental plan will be certified to ISO 14001 by the year 2001.
Environmental work
Mitsubishi Motors in Norway has now prepared its own environmental plan: Mitsubishi Agenda 21. The company has stated its goal to have an initial part of the group ISO 14001-certified by the year 2001. DNV is aiding Mitsubishi in this process, and has created a programme to meet the companys particular needs. The project is split into two during the pilot phase, five dealers and MMC Norge (the vehicle import company) will take part in a preliminary scheme that will last for one year. After this pilot phase, the work will be evaluated and a plan will be prepared to develop and implement it in the remaining part of the organisation. This consists of 19 subsidiary Mitsubishi dealers, as well as Motor Part (equipment and spare parts) and Motor Data (EDP) companies. Finally all the remaining independent, contracted dealers are targeted to be certified. Mitsubishis quality-assurance systems will also be certified to ISO 9002. The pilot group will develop and implement an environmental and quality-assurance management system for its members, says general manager Reidar A. Sten, responsible for PR, Environmental and Public Affairs in the Motor Group. During this process, the concept will be adapted to suit the entire Mitsubishi chain in Norway. The point has been to create a scheme that is adapted to our needs in terms of time, practical handling and, not least, costs. This will form a template for the other companies in the group.
Motivated dealers
It hasnt been difficult to get our dealers involved in the pilot project, says CEO Gunnar Eik. Were convinced that this will gradually become a motivating factor for the other dealers, once they see the advantages of being aware of quality assurance and environmental issues. Our dealers in Fredrikstad and Porsgrunn, who are in the pilot group, have already won a local authority environmental prize. This shows everyone that we place the environment high on our agenda.
Training and exchanging experience
The programme prepared by DNV is a combination of lectures, problem-solving in groups, and discussions. Between seminars, the participants get homework, in which goals, plans and routines must be verified and checked. The seminars start off with an introduction by DNV, during which the concept is discussed for each individual company how to define quality and environmental criteria, and what consequences they will have for each company. The aim of the seminars is to train and follow up the project participants, and for the project groups to exchange experiences. Says Gunnar Eik, The programme we have received from DNV is very suitable for the types of company and work we are dealing with. Since many of our dealers have a huge workload, we must have clear goals: what do we want to do, what are our goals, how extensive must the work be to gain environmental and quality-assurance certification? Weve developed a good dialogue with DNV and are sure that we can complete this process on time without having to put everything else to one side.
Once weve finished the process, were going to make the environmental certificate a part of our profile. Everything we do must demonstrate that Mitsubishi is an environmentally aware company.