5.2. Administering and improving
Arrow B, named administrating and improving (see Fig. 2)
highlights the responsibility of the EMS team to document,
maintain and continuously improve organisational environmental
management system (EMS) in line with ISO 14001.
This process refers to documentation part of this responsibility
e i.e. maintaining up-to-date records, documents and procedures
and their availability.
Even though this may seem an easy and straightforward
task, our research found that both CSOs struggled to manage
their ‘‘paperwork obligations’’. Documentation and monitoring
were often reported as a barrier or a room for improvement.
Arguments such as ‘data are not retrievable’,
‘document are at different facility’, and ‘responsibility was
not clearly given’ appeared the most common. Further investigation
revealed that CSOs still found it difficult to create
a simple and user-friendly documentation system, which
would match their structural, infrastructural and cultural particulars.
For instance, one CSO had their facilities geographically
dispersed. Because the documentation was in a paper
form, it was difficult to maintain the EMS ‘library’ in one
place and easily accessible. Furthermore, the level of IT literacy
was very low, which left an IT-based system an unrealistic
option. The other CSO, on the other hand, developed an ITbased
system that was closely integrated with their operations.